^ 


KING   EDWARD  VII. 


THE  STORY ."« DOMINION 

Four  Hundred  Years  in  the  Annals  of 
Half  a  Continent 


A  History  of  Canada  from  its  Early  Discovery 
and  Settlement  to  the  Present  Time;  Embracing 
its  Growth,  Progress  and  Achievements  in  the 


Pursuits  of  Peace  and  War. 


By  J.^ASTELL  HOPKINS,  P.S.S. 

Author  of  "Life  of  Sir  Joha  Thompsoa;"  ISditor  of  "Canada;"  Aa  Eacyclopaedia  of  the  Cenatry. 

Etc.,  Etc..  Etc. 

TKAXSI.ATED  INTO  THE  FRENCH 

By  HEX.IAMIX  SLLTE,  P.K.S.C. 

Membre  de  I'lnstitut  Etlinograpliiqiie  de  Taris  ct  du  Cercle 'Artistique  et  Litt^raire  de  Bruxellea 
Aiiteur  de  1'  "  Histuire  des  Canadiens-Francaia." 


Embellished  with  64  full-page  half-tone  engravings,  and  portraits 
of  more  than  100  eminent  men — the  makers  of  Canada.- 


THE   JOHN    C  WINSTON    CO. 

PHILADELPHIA  CHICAGO  TORONTO 


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PREFACE. 

SOME  years  ago  I  had  occasion  to  state  that  "  Canada  only  needs 
to  be  known  in  order  to  be  great."  Events  have  since  greatly 
strengthened  my  belief  in  the  truth  of  these  words  and  have  impressed 
upon  my  mind  the  further  fact  that  to  be  properly  appreciated  abroad 
a  people  should  be  familiar  with  its  own  past,  proud  of  its  own  history, 
filled  with  confidence  in  its  own  resources  and  strength  and  conscious 
of  its  own  national  and  material  development. 

Are  Canadians  in  this  position  ?  It  is  to  be  feared  that  only  a 
small  minority  realize  the  conditions  mentioned.  The  great  mass  of 
the  people  look  with  admiration  and  deserved  respect  upon  the 
splendid  annals  of  the  Mother-land,  her  wars  upon  sea  and  shore,  her 
heroes  in  history  and  statecraft  and  literature  and  every  branch  of 
human  progress,  her  wealth  of  civilized  tradition  and  store  of  consti- 
tutional liberties.  Others  are  impressed  with  the  vast  object-lesson 
of  United  States  development  and  the  thrilling  records  of  its  war  for 
unity  and  freedom.  To  them  all,  it  is  to  be  feared,  the  four  hundred 
years  of  history  which  the  Dominion  boasts  is  more  or  less  a  sweep- 
ing shadow  upon  the  dial  of  time  ;  a  matter  of  comparative  unimport- 
ance and  little  interest. 

Yet  that  period  includes  within  itself  the  most  picturesque  pano- 
rama of  events  in  all  the  annals  of  the  world.  There  lies  within  its 
shadow  the  figure  of  the  wild,  untamed  savage  moving  over  his  native 
ground  in  a  spirit  of  mingled  ferocity  and  love  of  freedom  ;  the  black- 
robed  Jesuit  struggling  against  fate  and  the  fierce  will  of  the  Iroquois  in 
a  spirit  of  sacrificial  fire  almost  unequalled  in  the  annals  of  martyrdom  ; 
the  long  procession  of  French  gentlemen  and  adventurers,  voyageurs 


843 


«  PREFACE 

and  hunters,  streaming  up  the  waterways  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
scattering  over  the  vast  wilderness  of  half  a  continent  in  pursuit  of 
dreams  of  wealth,  or  power,  or  fame ;  the  romantic  story  of  such  lives 
as  Iberville  le  Moyne  and  Charles  de  la  Tour,  such  struggles  as  those 
of  Champlain  and  the  Iroquois,  Frontenac  and  the  Americans,  Wolfe 
and  Montcalm. 

Through  the  shaded  aisles  of  a  primeval  forest,  over  thousands 
of  miles  of  lake  and  river  and  wilderness  echo  the  sounds  of  that  hun- 
dred years  of  war  between  the  French  and  English  for  the  possession 
of  this  continent.  Out  of  these  struggles  develop  the  striking  inci- 
dents of  the  Revolutionary  period  and  the  first  conflict  for  Canadian 
independence ;  out  of  the  new  condition  of  affairs  then  created  come 
the  memories  of  a  war  in  1812  which  was  fought  for  freedom  as  fully, 
and  marked  by  episodes  as  heroic,  as  ever  were  the  conflicts  of  ancient 
Greek  or  modern  Swiss. 

To  the  constitutional  student  there  are  no  more  interesting  pages 
in  history  than  those  describing  the  developments  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  British  America  and  none  which  convey  more  lessons  in 
the  follies  of  a  fanatical  freedom,  the  strength  of  an  hereditary  loyalty, 
the  value  of  a  moderate  liberty  evolving  through  precedent  into  prac- 
tice. The  questions  connected  with  the  history  of  Canada  are,  indeed, 
at  the  very  root  of  the  annals  and  present  position  of  the  British 
Empire.  He  who  would  understand  the  situation  of  to-day  must 
know  something,  for  instance,  of  the  prolonged  struggle  between 
British  and  American  tendencies  and  influence  which  permeates  the 
whole  modern  development  of  the  Canadian  people  from  the  annexa- 
tionist views  of  Papineau  and  Mackenzie  to  the  continental  aims  of 
Mr.  Erastus  Wiman  or  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  ;  from  the  religious  and 
denominational  ties  of  early  days  between  the  two  countries  to  the 
social  and  commercial  relations  of  a  later  time ;  from  the  early  period 
of  American  preachers  and  missionaries  and  teachers  and  schoolbooks 


PREFACE  iii 

to  the  present  time  of  an  American  cable  system,  and  news  agencies 
and  literature.  He  who  understands  the  existing  loyalty  of  Canada  to 
the  Empire  will  then  realize  in  the  full  light  of  its  history  that,  despite 
the  ties  of  tradition  and  allegiance  and  sentiment,  the  maintenance  and 
development  of  that  loyalty  is  one  of  the  miracles  of  the  century. 

To  the  young  men  of  Canada  a  knowledge  of  its  history  and 
progress  is  not  only  desirable  but  necessary.  To  understand  the 
business  situation  of  to-day  information  concerning  the  financial,  fiscal 
and  commercial  development  of  the  Dominion  is  exceedingly  useful. 
To  comprehend  the  position  of  political  parties,  the  utterances  of 
public  men,  the  principle  and  practice  of  national  administration,  a 
knowledge  of  the  political  struggles  and  progress  of  the  country  is 
also  essential.  In  all  these  respects  I  believe  that  the  following  pages 
may  be  found  of  some  service. 

I  have  not  tried  to  make  this  volume  a  detailed  record  of  dates 
and  incidents.  It  has  rather  been  my  desire  to  give  an  interesting 
narrative  of  the  great  events  which  go  to  the  making  of  Canada 
in  such  a  way  as  to  afford  a  summarized  review  instead  of  a  more  or 
less  dry  list  of  occurrences.  At  the  same  time  I  trust  that  no  event 
of  importance  has  been  left  unrecorded.  For  a  similar  reason  I  have 
not  laden  the  pages  with  foot-notes  or  references  to  the  many  hun- 
dreds of  volumes  with  which  occasion  has  made  me  familiar  in  the 
preparation  of  this  work  and  of  my  Encyclopcsdia  of  Canada.  And, 
in  concluding  these  few  prefatory  words,  I  can  only  add  the  hope  that 
a  book  which  has  been  written  with  sincere  belief  in  our  Canadian 
land  and  a  deep  personal  admiration  for  its  striking  history  may  be 
found  of  interest  and  perhaps  sow  some  further  seeds  of  true  Cana- 
dian sentiment  amongst  our  people. 


J(CicujUiL^edu 


Toronto,  December,  igoo. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

Discoveries  and  Explorations 

PAGE 

A  Period  of  Myth  and  Mystery — The  Sagas  of  Iceland  and  the  Voyages  of 
the  Norsemen — Cabot's  Place  in  History — Comparison  with  Columbus 
— Champlain  and  Cartier — Founding  of  Quebec — Discovery  of  the  Great 
Lakes — lya  Salle  and  the  Interior — The  French  and  the  English — Grad- 
ual Unrolling  of  the  New  World's  Map 17 

CHAPTER  II 

The  Indians  of  Early  Canada 

Their  Place  in  Tradition  and  Story — Their  Character  and  Customs — A 
History  Written  in  Fire  and  Blood  over  the  Whole  Continent — Two 
Sides  to  the  Record — The  Indian  of  the  Past  and  the  Present — Roman- 
tic Pictures  and  Black  Shadows — The  Iroquois  and  the  French — Heroism 
of  Daulac — The  Machine  Massacre — The  English  Colonists  and  the  Indi- 
ans— The  British  Government's  Treatment  of  the  Indian — The  Iroquois 
of  New  York  and  the  Revolution — Thayendanagea  and  Tecumseh — 
Darkness  Dawning  into  L,ight 43 

CHAPTER  III 

The  Jesuit  Missions  and  Pioneer  Christianity 

The  Pioneers  of  Empire  in  New  France — The  Jesuits  and  Their  Work — 
Extraordinary  Character  of  these  Black-robed  Martyrs  to  their  Faith — 
Success  with  the  Hurons — Failure  Amongst  the  Iroquois — A  Long  Story 
of  Privation,  Self-sacrifice,  Adventure,  Torture  and  Frequent  Death — 
Lallemant  and  Brebeuf — The  Early  Church  in  Quebec — Laval  and 
Briandand  Plessis — Difficulties  and  Disputes,  Power  and  Progress — Loy- 
alty to  Great  Britain  and  Wisdom  in  Administration 66 

CHAPTER  IV 

The  Land  of  Evangeline 

Fcimding  of  Acadie — Champlain  and  Du  Monts  and  Poutrincourt— Suffer- 
ings and  Hardships  of  the  Early  Settlers— Sir  William  Alexander  and 
the  English  Claims— Internal  and  External  Hostilities— The  Story  of 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  ▼ 

PAGB 

De  la  Tour  and  Charnisay — Rival  Colonists  and  Races  and  Varying 
Warfare — Treaties  and  Transfers  of  Allegiance. — Sir  William  Phipps  at 
Port  Royal — Final  British  Conquest — Continuous  Border  Troubles  with 
Quebec — Conduct  and  Character  of  the  Acadians — Hiawatha  at  the  Bar 
of  History — The  Expulsion  of  the  Acadians — Governor  Lawrence  and 
his  Reasons — The  End  of  Acadie  and  the  Birth  of  a  New  Era     ....       83 

CHAPTER  V 

The  French  and  English  Wars 

Rivalry  and  Warfare  of  a  Century — Prolonged  Conflict  for  the  Possession  of 
a  Continent — French  Aims  and  Character — English  Progress  and  Expan- 
sion— Feudalism  versus  Freedom  ;  Military  Ambition  versus  Commer- 
cial Development — Gallantry  of  the  French  in  their  Defiance  of  Fate — 
Greatness  of  their  Plans  and  the  One-time  Possibility  of  Success — Fron- 
tenac  and  Talon — War  and  Massacre  and  Battle — The  Hatchet  and 
Scalping  Knife  of  the  Indians,  and  the  Roar  of  European  Guns  in  the 
vast  Forest  Areas  of  America — De  Tracy  and  De  Courcelles — Denon- 
ville  of  Quebec,  and  Dongan  of  New  York — Sieges  of  Quebec — Brilliant 
Career  of  D  '  Iberville — Sieges  of  Louisbourg — Montcalm  and  Wolfe — 
Capture  of  Quebec  and  the  Last  Days  of  New-France 105 

CHAPTER  VI 

Colonial  Rivalry  and  the  Revolution 

Antagonism  of  the  French  in  Quebec  and  the  English  in  the  Thirteen  Colo- 
nies— Influences  of  Race  and  Religion  and  Historic  Rivalries — The 
Quebec  Act  and  the  English  Colonies — Guy  Carleton,  Lord  Dorchester 
— Gradual  Evolution  of  American  Discontent — Quebec  Remains  Pas- 
sively Loyal  to  the  Crown — Efforts  to  Divert  its  Allegiance — Washing- 
ton and  D'  Estaing  Appeal  to  French  Canadians — Franklin  in  Montreal 
— Declaration  of  American  Independence  and  Invasion  of  Canada — 
Carleton  Saves  the  Country  to  England — Progress  of  the  Revolution — 
Treaty  of  Peace  and  Canadian  Losses  of  Territory — Old  Quebec  Dis- 
membered and  the  Ohio  Valley  Given  to  the  New  Republic — Diverse 
Development  North  and  South  of  the  Great  Lakes 129 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Loyalist  Pioneers 

Genesis  of  the  American  Tories,  or  Canadian  Loyalists  of  a  Later  Time — 
Principles,  Traditions,  and  General  Position — Loyalty  to  the  King — 
Lights  and  Shadows  in  the  Life  and  Character  of  George  III— SuflFer- 


vi  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

TACiK 

ings  of  the  Loyalist  Refugees  to  the  Canadas  and  New  Brunswick — 
Hardships  of  Pioneer  L,ife — Stories  in  the  Making  of  a  Nation  and 
Country — New  Institutions  built  on  Old-time  Traditions — Loyalty  to 
the  Sovereign  as  the  Basis  of  L,ife  and  Work  in  a  vast  Wilderness  ...     148 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Early  Constitutional  Development 

French  Canadians  not  Ready  at  the  Cession,  nor  for  many  years  afterwards, 
to  Receive  the  Full  Forms  of  British  Freedom — The  Military  Regime, 
the  Quebec  Act,  and  the  Constitutional  Act — The  Expansion  of  Quebec  in 
1775  and  its  Restriction  and  Division  in  1791 — British  Government 
makes  the  Mistake  of  Beginning  at  the  Top  instead  of  at  the  Bottom  of 
the  Framework  of  Free  Institutions — Frenchmen  Born  and  Bred  in  the 
Traditions  of  Louis  XIV,  Frontenac  and  Bigot — Playing  at  Parlia- 
mentary Government — The  Situation  Different  in  the  Loyalist  Provinces.    166 

CHAPTER  IX 

The  War  1812-15- 

Causes  and  Issues  of  the  Conflict — Disproportion  of  Forces,  and  American 
Expectation  of  an  Immediate  Conquest  of  Canada — The  Difficulties  of 
England — Napoleon  Bonaparte  and  the  United  States — War  Declared 
by  the  Republic — The  Gauntlet  Taken  up  and  Flung  back  by  Brock  at 
the  Capture  of  Detroit  and  the  Conflict  on  Queenston  Heights.  Inva- 
sions Repulsed,  and  the  Varying  Results  of  Minor  Actions  in  three 
Important  Campaigns — Gallantry  of  Tecumseh  and  the  Indians — Weak- 
ness of  Prevost  and  Defeat  of  Procter  at  Moraviantown — American  Vic- 
tories on  the  Lakes — British  or  Canadian  Victories  at  Chateauguay, 
LacoUe  Mills,  Stony  Creek,  Chrystler's  Farm,  and  Lundy's  Lane — 
Landing  of  Peninsular  Veterans  at  Quebec — Disaster  at  Plattsburg ;  Cap- 
ture of  Washington  ;  Defeat  at  New  Orleans  and  End  of  the  War — The 
Treaty  of  Peace — Canadian  Heroes  and  Homes  in  the  Struggle — Brock, 
Tecumseh,  De  Salaberry,  Fitzgibbon,  Harvey,  Morrison,  McDonell  and 
Drummond 183 

CHAPTER  X 

An  Era  of  Agitation 

Development  of  Discontent  in  Lower  Canada — Moderate  Frenchmen  in 
a  very  Small  Minority — English  and  French  Antagonisms — The  French 
Majority  Seizes  its  Opportunity — The  Assembly  becomes  a  Convenient 
Tool  for  Racial  Control  of  the  Province — Papineau  as  an  Orator,  an 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  "^ 

PACK 

Agitator,  and  a  Budding  Rebel — Neilson,  Morin,  Viger,  Sewell,  and 
other  Lower  Canada  Leaders — The  Governors  and  Their  Difiiculties— 
Grievances,  Real  and  Fancied — The  Ninety-two  Resolutions — Attitude 
and  Policy  of  the  Tories — In  Upper  Canada  and  Down  by  the  Atlantic — 
Clergy  Reserves  and  other  Issues — Benefits  of  the  Loyalist  Regime — 
Mackenzie  Appears  on  the  Scene  in  Succession  to  Thorpe,  Gourlay,  and 
other  Agitators — His  Struggles  and  Aspirations  and  Policy — Alliance 
with  Papineau  -English  Radicals  and  Canadian  Reformers — Agitation 
steadily  Develops  Disloyalty  and  Rebellion  in  the  two  Canadas — Different 
Results  of  Controversy  on  the  Atlantic  Sea -board 208 

CHAPTER  XI 

The  Troubles  of  1837-8 

Progress  of  Sedition  in  the  Canadas — Attitude  of  the  Governors — Colborne 
and  Bond  Head — Extreme  Views  and  Violence  of  Papineau  and  Macken- 
zie— Comparative  Moderation  of  Howe  and  Baldwin.  The  Tory  Posi- 
tion on  the  Verge  of  the  Outbreak — Conflicts  in  Lower  Canada — The 
Short  and  Sharp  Struggle  in  Upper  Canada — Punishment  of  the  Rebels — 
Border  Troubles  and  Relations  with  the  United  States — Raids  and  other 
Results — Lord  Durham's  "Zxi^i Regime — The  Rebellion  in  History  and 
Politics 237 

CHAPTER  XII 

Lord  Durham  and  the  Union  of  1841 

Remarkable  Character  of  the  Earl  of  Durham — His  Policy  and  Short  Admin- 
istration— His  Famous  Report  the  Basis  of  Colonial  Constitutions  every- 
where— Recommends  the  Union  of  the  Canadas — Obstacles  to  the  Pro- 
ject— Condition  of  the  People  and  Politics — Racial  Complications — 
Carried  in  Upper  Canada  through  the  Tory  Spirit  of  Loyalty — Influence 
and  Policy  of  Lord  Sydenham — The  Principles  and  Bases  of  Union — Its 
Creation  and  First  Fruits 254 

CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and  the  Northwest 

Foundation  and  Early  Annals  of  the  Company — ^The  Great  Wilderness  of  the 
Far  West — The  Red  River  Settlement— Lord  Selkirk  and  His  Times — 
The  Indians  and  the  Half- breeds — Explorations  and  Discoveries — The 
Rival  Fur-Companies — Expansion  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company — 
Early  History  of  British  Columbia — The  Company  and  Colonization — 
Vancouver  Island  and  the  Mainland — Prince  Rupert's  Land  and  Negotia- 
tions with  Canada — The  Passing  Power  of  a  Great  Company 267 


vi"  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   XIV 

The  Struggles  for  Responsible  Government 

PAGB 

Conditions  Prevalent  after  the  Union  of  the  Canadas — What  the  Advocates 
of  Responsible  Government  Wanted — Reason  for  Opposition — The  Gov- 
ernors and  the  Colonial  Office — Bagot,  Metcalfe,  and  Elgin — ^The  Politi- 
cal Leaders  and  the  Issue — Draper  and  McNab,  Baldwin  and  Lafon- 
taine — Eord  Elgin  Settles  the  Question — In  the  Maritime  Provinces — 
Howe  and  the  Governors  of  Nova  Scotia — Varied  Phases  of  the  Issue — 
Fisher  and  Wilmot  in  New  Brunswick — Satisfactory  Solution  of  an 
Important  Controversy 284 

CHAPTER  XV 

Political  Reforms  and  General  Progress 

The  Troubles  of  1849 — The  Rebellion  Losses  Bill — Riots  and  Elections — 
British  Free  Trade  and  One  of  its  Results — A  Perambulating  Parliament 
— The  British  American  League  and  the  Early  Days  of  Sir  John  Mac- 
donald — George  Brown  comes  to  the  Front — Abolition  of  the  Seigneurial 
Tenure — Settlement  of  the  Clergy  Reserves — Political  Complications  and 
Parties  in  the  Canadas — On  the  Verge  of  Deadlock — Position  of  Affairs 
•  in  the  Maritime  Provinces — Rise  of  Charles  Tupper  and  Leonard  Tilley 
into  Prominence — The  Grand  Trunk  and  the  Intercolonial — Gradual 
Growth  of  the  Provinces 305 

CHAPTER   XVI 

Reciprocity  and  the  United  States  Civil  War 

The  Early  Fiscal  Policy  of  the  Provinces — Abolition  of  British  Preferential 
Duties — The  Public  Mind  Turns  to  the  States — Lord  Elgin's  Ability 
and  Diplomacy — Visits  Washington  and  Obtains  the  Treaty  of  1854 — 
Its  Nature  and  Benefits — Its  Tenure  and  Disadvantages — Different  Inter- 
pretations— The  Gait  Tariff  in  the  Canadas — Complaints  by  the  United 
States — The  Civil  War  and  the  Supposed  Attitude  of  England.  Her 
Real  Position  and  that  of  the  Provinces — The  Alabama  Claims  and 
Fenian  Raids  Result  from  the  War — The  General  Nature  of  the  Interna- 
tional Situation — Its  Effect  upon  British  America 327 

CHAPTER  XVII 

The  Confederation  of  the  Provinces 

Origin  of  Confederation — Early  Advocates  of  the  Idea — Causes  which 
Brought  it  to  the  Front  in  1864-66 — The  Conferences  at  Charlottetown  and 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  ix 

TAGS 

Quebec — Who  was  the  Father  of  Confederation  ? — Meeting  in  London — 
British  Statesmen  Support  the  Policy  of  Union — Its  Necessity  and 
Desirability — A  Crisis  in  British  Colonial  History — The  Influence  of 
John  A.  Macdonald — Debates  in  the  Canadian  Legislature — Attitude  of 
Cartier  and  Dorion  in  Lower  Canada — Of  Howe,  and  Tupper  and  Tilley 
in  the  Maritime  Provinces — Of  McGee,  and  Gait  and  George  Brown  in 
the  Canadas — Accomplishment  of  the  Policy  and  Birth  of  the  Dominion 
of  Canada 342 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

The  Completing  Confederation 

The  Situation  of  AflFairs  on  July  i ,  1 867 — Sir  John  Macdonald  Forms  the 
first  Dominion  Government — A  Nominal  Coalition — Organization  of  a 
new  Administrative  System — Purchase  of  Rupert's  Land  and  Creation 
of  Manitoba — The  Insurrection  at  Fort  Garry — Wolseley  and  Riel — The 
Admission  of  Manitoba  to  the  Union — Organization  of  the  Territories — 
Admission  of  British  Columbia — Prince  Edward  Island  also  Comes  in — 
The  Federal  Situation  in  Nova  Scotia  and  its  Solution 360 

CHAPTER  XIX 

The  Treaty  of  Washington  1 

Relations  with  the  United  States  after  the  Abrogation  of  the  Reciprocity 
Treaty — The  Joint  High  Commission  of  1871 — Its  Composition  and 
Objects — Sir  John  Macdonald 's  Difficult  Position — The  Fenian  Raid 
Claims  and  Canadian  Fisheries — Conclusion  of  the  Treaty — Opinion  in 
Canada  and  its  Ultimate  Passage  through  Parliament — Important  Issues 
Involved — The  Patriotic  Attitude  of  Canada — Relations  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States 380 

CHAPTER  XX 

Political  Questions  and  Development 

The  Party  System  in  the  New  Dominion — Changes  and  Transformations — 
Policy  of  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald — Disappearance  of  Old  Issues — The 
Provinces  in  New  Clothes — Their  Ministers  and  Parties — Complications 
Between  the  Dominion  and  Provincial  Authorities — Improvement  in 
Parliament  and  Politics — Broader  Views  and  Bigger  Minds — Position 
and  Character  of  the  Governors-General — ^The  Joly  Question  in  Quebec 
— ^The  General  Elections  of  1872  and  1874 394 


X  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXI 

The  National  Policy  of  Protection 

PAGB 

Fiscal  Relations  of  the  New  Dominion  with  the  United  States — Change  in 
Conditions — The  Tariff  Remains  at  a  Revenue  Level — Industrial  Com- 
petition and  Growing  Depression  in  Canada — A  Protective  Tariff  Advo- 
cated— Sir  John  Macdonald  Takes  Up  the  Question — Resolutions  in  the 
House  of  Commons — Opposed  by  the  Government — General  Election  of 
1878 — Victory  of  the  Conservatives — The  Macdonald  Ministry  and  its  • 
Policy — The  "  N.  P."  Tariff  passes  Parliament  in  1879 — Principles  of 
Protection  in  Canada — Its  Ups  and  Downs  and  Final  Acceptance  by  all 
Parties 418 

CHAPTER  XXII 

Construction  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway 

The  Principle  of  a  Continental  Highway  and  its  Early  Advocates — The  Pledge 
to  British  Columbia — The  Promoters  of  1872  and  their  Troubles — -Mr. 
Mackenzie  and  the  Policy  of  His  Government — The  Syndicate  of  1880 — 
Sir  Charles  Tupper  takes  Up  the  Question — ^The  Macdonald  Govern- 
ment Presses  the  Final  Contract  through  Parliament — Building  of  the 
Great  Railway — Difficulties  and  Obstacles — George  Stephen  and  Donald 
A.  Smith — Triumph  of  the  Company  and  Completion  of  the  Railway — 
A  Great  Undertaking  and  its  Importance  to  Canada .    430 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

The  Northwest  and  the  Rebellion  of  1885" 

The  People  and  Position  of  the  Territories — Causes  of  the  Insurrection — 
Appearance  of  L,ouis  Riel  on  the  Scene — The  Indians  and  the  Half-breeds 
— Policy  of  the  Government — Breaking  out  of  the  Rebellion — ^Troops 
Hurried  from  all  Parts  of  Canada  to  the  Banks  of  the  Saskatchewan — 
General  Middleton  as  a  Commander — Success  of  his  Tactics  and  Ulti- 
mate Triumph  of  his  Political  Adversaries-r-Conflicts  at  Fish  Creek,  • 
Cut-Knife  and  Batoche — Capture  and  Execution  of  Riel — Results  of  the 
Rising 449 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

Quebec  and  the  Jesuits  Estates  Question 

Political  Issues  in  Quebec  and  the  Position  of  the  Church — The  Habitant 

■    and  the  Clergy — Twenty  Years  of  Conservative  Success — ^The  Rise  and 

Diverse  Characteristics  of  Mercier  and  Laurier — ^The  Riel  Question  and 

the  People  of  Quebec — Position  of  Chapleau,   L,angevin  and  Carou — 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xJ 

PAGB 

Triumph  of  Mercier  in  Provincial  Politics  and  ,of  Chapleau  in  the 
Dominion  Elections — Genesis  of  the  Jesuits  Estates — Appeal  to  the  Pope 
— Passage  of  the  Grant  to  the  Jesuits — Agitation  in  Ontario  and  Birth  of 
the  Equal  Rights  party — Refusal  of  the  Dominion  Government  to  inter- 
fere with  the  Legislation — D'  Alton  McCarthy  and  the  "  Noble  Thir- 
teen " — A  Very  Living  Question  for  a  Time — Its  Decay  and  the  Fall  of 
Mercier  in  Quebec 471 

CHAPTER  XXV 

Trade  and  Tariffs  and  Unrestricted  Reciprocity 

The  Progress  of  Canadian  Trade — Popularity  of  Protection — Changes  in 
Liberal  Tariff  Policy — Mackenzie,  Blake  and  Laurier  in  this  Connection 
— Natural  Pessimism  of  the  Opposition — Erastus  Wiman  Appears  on 
the  Scene  in  1887 — Sir  Richard  Cartwright,  Goldwin  Smith  and  the 
New  Scheme  of  Commercial  Union,  or  Unrestricted  Reciprocity — Pro- 
gress of  the  Movement  in  Parliament  and  the  Country — American  Ver- 
sus British  Relations  at  Issue — The  Elections  of  1891 — Manifestoes  of 
Sir  John  Macdonald  and  Wilfrid  Laurier — ^The  Hottest  Contest  in 
Canadian  History — The  New  Proposals  Defeated — Gradual  Decay  of 
the  Idea  and  its  Final  Disappearance  in  the  Elections  of  1896 491 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

Manitoba  and  the  School  Question 

Progress  of  Manitoba  After  its  Union  with  Canada — Material  Interests  the 
Chief  Concern  of  its  Scattered  People — Education  Finds  an  Important 
Place — Separate  Schools  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Population — Position 
of  Archbishop  Tachd — Legislation  and  the  Schools — ^Joseph  Martin 
Advocates  "National"  Schools — Abolition  in  1890  of  the  Existing 
System — Catholic  Appeals  to  the  Courts  and  to  the  Judicial  Committee 
in  London — Decisions  of  the  Latter  Body  and  Appeal  to  the  Governor- 
•  General-in- Council — Excitement  amongst  French  Canadians  and  Ontario 
Orangemen — Difficult  Position  of  the  Dominion  Government — The  Reme- 
dial Order— Attitude  of  Sir  M.  Bowell  and  Sir  C.  Tupper— Of  Mr.  Lau- 
rier and  the  Opposition — Position  of  the  Hierarchy — Political  Conflict 
and  Confusion — ^The  Elections  of  1896  and  the  Policy  of  the  New  Gov- 
ernment     518 

CHAPTER  XXVII 

The  South  African  War  and  Imperialism  in  Canada 

Position  of  Canada  in  the  Empire — Responsibilities  not  Always  Recognized — 
The  Outbreak  of  the  War — Popular  Opinion  in  the  Colonies — Influence 


«ii  .    TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

.     ,     —J      ,  PAGE 

of  the  Imperial  Federation  I,eague — Precedents  for  Sending  the  Contin- 
gents— History  of  their  Despatch — Patriotic  Enthusiasm  of  the  People — 
Position  of  Lord  Minto,  Sir  W.  Laurier  and  Sir  C.  Tupper — Major-Gene- 
ral  Hutton  and  the  Militia — The  Colonial  Ofiice  and  Canada — Gallantry 
of  Canadian  Troops  in  South  Africa — Growth  of  British  Sentiment  in 
Canada — Attitude  of  Quebec  and  Mr.  J.  Israel  Tarte — Possible  Results 
of  the  War  and  of  Colonial  Participation — A  New  Empire  and  a  Greater 
Canada 541 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

A  Review'  of  Popular  Progress 

Growth  of  Internal  Liberty  and  the  Practice  of  Self-government — The  Old- 
Time  Legislatures  and  the  New — French-Canadians  and  British  Institu- 
tions— The  Toryism  of  1800  and  the  Democracy  of  1900 — Extension  ol 
Education — Journalism  and  Literature — The  Churches  and  Religion — 
Growth  of  the  Principles  of  Toleration — The  People  and  their  Social 
Progress — Development  of  Patriotism — The  Militia  and  its  Growth — Out 
of  Provincialism  into  Nationality — Canada  for  Canadians  Within  the 
Empire 562 

CHAPTER  XXIX 

The  Growth  of  National  Prosperity 

Trade  Between  the  Provinces — Industrial  Expansion — Growth  of  the  North- 
west— Wheat  Upon  the  Prairies — Cattle  in  the  Territories — Mineral 
Wealth  of  British  Columbia  and  the  Yukon — Agriculture  and  the  Posi- 
tion of  the  Farmer — Mining  in  Ontario  and  Nova  Scotia — Commercial 
Expansion — Progress  of  Canals,  Railways  and  Steamship  Lines — Ship- 
ping, Banking  and  Fisheries — Competition  and  General  Progress   .    .    .     597 

CHAPTER  XXX 

External  Relations  of  the  Dominion 

Treaties  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States — Those  of  1783  and 
18 1 8 — A  General  Review  of  the  Relations  and  Mutual  Interests  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  Canada  and  the  American  Republic — Treaties  which 
Have  Failed — Fisheries  and  Reciprocity — ^The  Behring  Sea  Arbitration 
— Canada,  Venezuela  and  the  Monroe  Doctrine — The  Alaska  Boundary 
— American  Efforts  at  Annexation — Canadian  Opinion  upon  the  Subject 
.  — Feeling  Toward  the  Mother-land — Past  Complexities  in  the  Situation 
— The  Present  View  and  Probable  Future 620 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


*  Pace 

Her  Majesty  the  Queen-Empress 

(1900)      Frontispiece 

H.  R.  H.  The  Prince  Consort  .    .  " 

The   Hon.    John    A.    Macdonald 

(in  1854) vii 

The  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  A.  Mac- 
donald, P.C,  G.C.B.     .    .  vii 

Her  Majesty   Queen  Victoria  (at 

the  time  of  Confederation)    .  xv 

H.  R.  H.    The   Prince  of    Wales 

(when  visiting  Canada)    .    .  xv 

Major-General  Sir  William  Pepper- 
ell  at  the  Siege  of  Louisbourg  17 

Samuel  de  Champlain 21 

Jacques  Cartier 21 

Natural  Steps,  Montmorenci,  near 

Quebec 32 

Thayendanegea  (Joseph  Brant)   .  57 

Tecumseh 57 

Marguerite  Bourgeois 68 

Magdalen  de  la  Peltrie 68 

Mgr.  Jean  Octave  Plessis    ....  68 

Mgr.  Francois  de  Laval 68 

Louis  Joseph,  Marquis  de   Mont- 
calm     77 

Major-General  James  Wolfe  ...  77 
Death  of  General   Wolfe  on   the 

Plains  of  Abraham 88 

The  Falls  of  Niagara,  Canadian  side  97 
Jerome  le   Royer  de  la   Dauver- 

si6re 108 

Paul  Chomedey  de  Maisonneuve  .  108 
Francois,  Due  de  Levis,  Marshal 

of  France 108 


Paob 

Lieut. -General  J.  Graves  Simcoe  .  108 

Scene  in  the  Thousand  Islands,  St. 

Lawrence  River 133 

Guy  Carleton,  Lord  Dorchester  .  144 
John  George  Lambton,  ist  Earl  of 

Durham 144 

Chateau  de  Ramezay,  Montreal  .153 
Old  Hudson's  Bay  Company  Post, 

near  Montreal 153 

Archbishop  Tache 164 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  S.  Nelles  .  164 
The  Rev.  Dr.  R.  A.  Fyfe  ....  164 
The  Most  Rev.  Dr.  Francis  Ful- 

ford 164 

Buildings  and  Scenes  of  Historical 

Interest    in    Old     and    New 

Canada 173 

Cape  Eternity  and  Cape  Trinity, 

Saguenay  River,  Quebec  .  .180 
Col.   The   Hon.   C  M.   de   Sala- 

berry,  C.B 189 

Major-General  Sir  Isaac  Brock  .  189 
The  Battle  of  Queenston  Heights, 

October  13,  1813 200 

The  Hon.  Sir  John  Beverley  Rob- 
inson, Bart.,  C.B.,  D.C.L.  .  209 
Charles   Poulett  Thomson,   Lord 

Sydenham 209 

The  Hon.  Robert  Baldwin,  C.B.  .  220 
The  Hon.  Sir  Louis  Hypolite  La- 

fontaine,  Bart 220 

The  Right  Rev.  and  Hon.  Dr.  John 

Strachan 229 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Egerton  Ryerson  .  229 
Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton    .    .  240 

xlii 


xlv 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 

William  lyyon  Mackenzie  .  .  .  .240 
The  Hon.  Louis  Joseph  Papineau  240 
Sir  John  George  Bourinot  ,  .  .  240 
James  Bruce,  8th   Earl  of  Elgin 

and  Kincardine 249 

William  Kingsford,  lyly.D.  .  .  .260 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Wilkes        .260 

The  Hon.  John  Young 260 

Colonel  George  McDonell,  C.B.    .260 
The  Hon.  Luc  Eetellier  de  St.  Just  269 
The  Hon.  Sir  Albert  J.  Smith      .  269 
The  Hon.  Sir  Adams  G.  Archi- 
bald. K.C.M.G 269 

The  Hon.  Thomas  D'Arcy  McGee,  269 
The  Hon.  Lemuel  Allan  Wilmot  280 
The  Hon.  Joseph  Howe  ....  280 
General  Sir  William  Fenwick  Wil- 
liams, Bart.,  (of  Kars)  .  .  .  280 
Major-General  Sir  Howard  Doug- 
las, G.C.B 280 

The  Hon.  George  Brown  .  .  .  .289 
The  Rev.  Dr.  George  Douglas  .  .  300 
The  Rev.  Principal  Caven,  D.D.  300 
The  Rev.  Dr.  John  Cook  ....  300 
The  Rev.  Dr.  James  Richardson  .  300 
The  Hon.  Sir  Oliver  Mowat  .    .    .  309 

The  Hon.  Sir  Frank  Smith    .    .    .  309 

The  Hon.  Edward  Palmer  .  .  .316 
The  Hon.  Sir  William  Young, Knt.  316 
The    Hon.    Sir    John    Campbell 

Allen,  Knt 316 

The  Hon.  George  E.  King,  LL.D.  316 
The  Hon.  Sir  Alexander  T.  Gait  325 
The  Hon.  Sir  Francis  Hincks  .  .  325 
The  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Rose, 

Bart.,  P.C,  G.C.M.G.  .    .    .  325 

Sir  Ettiene  P.  Tache 325 

The    Hon.    Sir    William    Ralph 

Meredith,  Knt 336 

H.  E.  Elzear  Alexandre,  Cardinal 

Taschereau 336 


Pagb 

The  Hon.  Honore  Mercier,  Q.C.  336 
Sir  William  C.  Van  Home  .  .  .  336 
Sir  J.  W.  Trutch,  K.C.M.G.  .  .  345 
The  Hon.  George  A.  Walkem  .  .  345 
The  Hon.  Theodore  Davie   .    .    .  345 

The  Hon.  John  Robson 345 

The  Hon.  J.  P.  O.  Chauveau,  Q.C.  356 
The  Hon.  C.  E.  B.  de  Boucher- 

ville,  C.M.G 356 

The  Hon.  Sir  Narcisse  F.  Belleau  356 
The  Hon.  Thomas  White,  M.P.  .  356 
Visit  of  H.R.  H.  The  Prince  of 

Wales  to  Toronto  in  i860  .  .  365 
Field  Marshal,  Viscount  Wolseley  376 
The    Hon.    William   McDougall, 

C.B 376 

The  Hon.  F.  W.  G.  Haultain  .  .  385 
The  Hon.  John  Norquay  .  .  • .  .  385 
The  Hon.  Thomas  Greenway  .  .  385 
The  Hon.   Hugh  J.    Macdonald, 

Q.C 385 

Sir  Charles  Hibbert  Tupper  .  .  .  396 
The  Hon.  Sir  Adolphe  J.  P.  R. 

Caron,  K.C.M.G 396 

The  Hon.  Sir  Alexander  Camp- 
bell, K.C.M.G 396 

The  Hon.  Sir  D.  L,.  Macpherson, 

K.C.M.G 396 

The  Hon.  Sir  Richard  J.  Cart- 
wright,  K.C.M.G.,  M.P.  .  .  405 
The  Hon.  Edward  Blake,  Q.C.  .405 
The  Hon.  Sir  Antoine  A.  Dorion  405 
The  Hon.  Sir  George  E.  Cartier  405 
The  Hon.  Sir  Hector  L.  Lange- 

vin,  K.C.M.G.,  C.B 416 

The  Hon.    Sir  Adolphe  Chapleau  416 
The   Hon.    Sir  Samuel    Leonard 
Tilley,  K.C.M.G.,  C.B.  .    .    .416 

The  Hon.  George  Eulas  Foster  .416 
Sir  Sandford  Fleming,  K.C.M.G.  425 

Sir  Joseph  Hickson,  Knt 425 

Sir  William  E.  Logan,  LL-D.  .    .  425 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 

Sir  Hugh  Allan,  Knt 425 

George  Stephen,  ist  Lord  Mount 

Stephen 436 

Donald   A.    Smith,  Lord  Strath- 

cona  and  Mount  Royal  .  .  436 
Sir  J.  William  Dawson,  C.B.  ,  .  445 
Principal  George  M.  Grant,  D.D.  445 
lyouis  H.  Frechette,  C.M.G.  .  ,445 
Nicholas  Flood  Davin,  Q.C.  .    .    .  445 

Battle  of  Batoche 456 

Battle  of  Cut  Knife  Hill     .    .    .    .  456 

Major-General  Sir  F.  D.  Middle- 
ton,  K.C.M.G.,  C.B 465 

Lieutenant-Colonel  A.  T.  H.  Wil- 
liams, M.P 465 

The  Hon.  George  W.  Ross,  LL.D.  476 
The  Hon.  David  Mills,  Q.C    .    .  476 
The  Hon.  William  Stevens  Field- 
ing, M.P 476 

The  Hon.  Andrew  G.  Blair,  Q  C.  476 
Gilbert  Parker,  D.C.L.,  M.P.  .  .  485 
William  Wilfrid  Campbell     .    .    .  485 

Archibald  Lampman 485 

Charles  G.  D.  Roberts 485 

Parliament  Buildings,  Toronto  .  496 
University    of    Trinity     College, 

Toronto 496 

The  Marquess  of  Lome ,  G .  C .  M .  G . , 

9th  Duke  of  Argyll  ....  505 
H.  R.  H.    The   Princess    Louise, 

Marchioness  of  Lome  .  .  .  505 
Charles,  Lord  Monck,  G. C.M.G.  505 
The  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Young, 

I  St  Lord  Lisgar 505 


Page 

The  Marquess  of  Lansdowne  .    .516 
Lord  Stanley  of  Preston,  G. C.B. , 

i6th  Earl  of  Derby  .  .  .  .516 
The  Earl  of  Aberdeen,  G. C.M.G.  516 
His    Excellency,    The     Earl    of 

Minto,   G. C.M.G 516 

The  Hon.  Alexander  Mackenzie  .  525 
The  Hon.  Sir  Mackenzie  Bowell  .  525 
The  Right  Hon.  Sir  John  Thomp- 
son, P. C,  K. C.M.G 536 

The  Hon.  Sir  John  J.  C.  Abbott  .  536 

Scene  in  the  South  African  War  .  545 

Field  Marshal  Lord  Roberts  and 

Four  Canadian  Ofi&cers  in  the 

South  African  War  of  1899- 

1900 556 

Henry  H.  M.  Herbert,  4th  Earl  of 

Carnarvon 565  ' 

The  Right  Hon.  Joseph  Chamber- 
lain, M.P 565 

The   Hon.    Sir    Charles    Tupper, 

Bart,  G. C.M.G.,  C.B 576 

Quebec  Citadel 585 

Mgr.  Diomede  Falconio 596 

Mgr.  RafFaelle  Merry  del  Val    .    .  596 
The  Battle  of  Paardeberg,  South 

Africa,  1900 605 

The  Right  Hon.  Sir  Wilfrid  Lau- 

rier,  G.C.M.G.,  P.C,  M.P.  .  616 
The  Marquess  of  Dufferin  and  Ava  616 
The    Houses    of    Parliament    at 

Ottawa 625 

The  Canadian  House  of  Commons 

in  Session,  1900 636 


CHAPTER  I 
Discoveries  and  Explorations 

FLOATING  down  the  stream  of  the  ages  have  come  many 
interesting  myths  and  traditions  regarding  the  Continent  of 
America  and  that  half  of  its  vast  area  which  has  since  become 
the  Dominion  of  Canada.  Plato,  the  Greek,  described  a  mighty 
island  of  Atlantis  which  was  supposed  to  have  been  submerged  by 
the  waters  of  a  boundless  sea,  but  was  far  more  probably  shrouded 
from  sight  by  passing  centuries  of  ignorant  indifference.  Seneca, 
the  Spanish  teacher  of  the  youthful  Nero,  taught  his  Imperial  pupil 
of  a  great  continent  which  should  one  day  defy  the  darkness  of 
unknown  waters  and  appear  beyond  the  ultimate  bounds  of  Thule. 
A  Chinese  record  of  the  fifth  century  indicates  a  possible  Buddhist 
visit  to  Mexico ;  and  Welsh  traditions  of  a  later  date  record  the 
mythical  voyage  of  Madoc,  in  the  twelfth  century,  to  a  far  western 
country  where  he  saw  many  strange  sights  and  scenes.  The  sifting 
influence  of  historic  research  has,  however,  left  these  and  many  other 
stories  to  take  their  place  beside  the  romantic  quest  for  the  Golden 
Fleece  and  similar  legends  of  an  olden  time. 

VOYAGES    OF    THE    NORSEMEN 

More  satisfactory,  because  more  stable  in  basis,  are  the  records  of 
Norse  invasion  and  Viking  adventure.  Sailing  from  out  their  rugged 
shores  about  the  middle  of  the  Christian  era,  these  wandering  ocean 
warriors  played  a  great  part  in  the  history  of  lands  bordering  upon 
the  sea.  Brave  to  rashness,  and  sturdy  and  stubborn  in  pursuit  of 
gold,  or  silver,  or  precious  stones,  they  made  piracy  almost  respecta- 
ble in  days  when  power  belonged  to  him  who  could  hold  it,  and 
2  17 


ift  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLOkATlONS 

property  to  him  who  could  take  it.  There  seems  little  reason  to 
doubt  that  the  small  but  strong  wooden  vessels  of  the  sea-kings 
sighted  the  shores  of  America  and  beached  their  prows  on  the  coast 
of  Canada.  Iceland  and  the  Faroe  Islands,  we  know,  were  settled 
by  the  Norsemen  in  the  ninth  century.  Eric  the  Red,  of  Norway, 
occupied  the  coast  of  Greenland  in  A.  D,  986,  and  one  of  his  colo- 
nists was  a  little  later  swept  by  stormy  seas  into  sight  of  unknown 
lands  to  the  south  and  west.  Leif  Ericson,  in  the  year  1000,  under- 
took the  exploration  of  these  strange  new  regions,  and  appears  to 
have  touched  the  continent  where  Labrador  now  is.  Other  points 
which  he  claims  to  have  seen  were  called  Helluland,  Markland  and 
Vinland.  Whether  these  places  were  really  the  Island  of  New- 
foundland, the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  shores  of  Massachu- 
setts, as  is  respectively  alleged,  will  probably  remain  a  hopelessly 
disputed  point. 

TALES    OF    VIKING    HEROES 

There  are  strong  reasons  for  believing  in  some  measure  the 
truth  of  the  Icelandic  Sagas,  from  whence  these  traditions  are 
derived,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  songs  which  thus  sing  weird 
tales  of  Viking  heroes  upon  the  Atlantic  shores  of  Canada  and 
the  United  States  have  a  firmer  ground  of  fact  to  support  their 
swelling  words  than  has  many  an  accepted  event  of  old-time  East- 
ern and  European  history.  Still,  so  far  as  the  world  at  large  was 
concerned,  nothing  but  faint  rumours  and  mythical  tales  had  resulted 
from  these  passing  settlements  upon  the  soil  of  America  or  sweeping 
glimpses  of  its  lonely  shores. 

To  really  make  this  vast  region  known  to  humanity  required 
a  period  of  growing  maritime  commerce  as  well  as  of  stirring  adven- 
ture— a  time  when  the  Orient,  with  its  wealth  of  mystery  and 
romance,  of  silks  and  spices,  of  gold  and  silver  and  gems,  was 
being   brought   closer   to    the    eye   and   the    mind   of    Europe.      It 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  19 

required  the  discovery  of  the  compass  and  the  wider  knowledge  of 
navigation  which  grew  so  naturally  out  of  that  event.  It  was  made 
imminent  by  the  Portuguese  discovery  of  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
in  i486,  and  inevitable  by  the  growth  of  British  maritime  ambitions 
and  the  sea-dog  spirit  of  the  sturdy  islanders.  It  became  a  fact 
when  Columbus,  after  imbibing  the  love  of  the  sea  from  his  birth- 
place of  Genoa,  sailed  the  Mediterranean  and  the  nearer  waters  of  the 
Atlantic  for  twenty  years  and  then  made  up  his  mind  to  discover  a 
direct  route  to  the  East  Indies.  For  long  after  coming  to  this  con- 
clusion, he  haunted  the  courts  of  Europe,  and  finally  impressed  his 
belief  in  these  new  lands,  and  his  faith  in  a  new  route  to  the  East, 
upon  the  generous  Isabella  of  Castile.  The  discovery  of  San  Salva- 
dor and  other  islands  of  the  West  India  group  which  followed,  in 
the  memorable  year  1492,  opened  the  way  not  only  to  a  new  world 
in  territorial  magnitude  but  to  the  greatest  empires  of  history  and  to 
newer  civilizations  and  larger  liberties. 

cabot's  place  in  history 
It  remained,  however,  for  a  Venetian,  sailing  under  the  flag  of 
England,  to  first  touch  the  mainland  of  the  continent.  John  Cabot 
has  only  now,  after  lying  in  the  silence  of  forgotten  dust  during  four 
long  centuries,  come  into  recognized  honour  and  deserved  renown. 
Whether,  in  1497,  he  touched  the  shores  of  Canada  amid  the  cold  and 
ice  of  Labrador,  or  in  the  wilder  country  of  Nova  Scotia,  there  seems 
every  reason  to  believe  that  he  did  reach  it  somewhere  between  those 
two  regions.*  A  monument  at  Bristol,  from  which  he  sailed,  and  a 
memorial  at  Halifax,  which  he  made  possible  as  a  British  seaport 
and  city,  agree  in  marking  the  great  importance  of  his  work.  Colum- 
bus, of  course,  had  preceded   him  in  touching    the  island  fringe  of 

*  Authorities  differ  greatly  in  opinion  as  to  Cabot's  landing  place.  Judge  Prowse  believes  that  he  first  touched  the 
shores  of  Newfoundland,  while  Dr.  Harvey  favours  the  Cape  Breton  theory.  Labrador  is  supported  by  H.  Harrisse,  and 
in  eailier  days  by  Humboldt  and  Biddle.  But  the  bulk  of  modern  opinion,  including  Sir  Clements  Markham,  Signor 
Tarducci,  R.  G.  Thwaites,  and  Sir  J.  G.  Bourinot,  is  strongly  in  favour  of  Cape  Breton  as  the  landing  place.  This 
view  has  recently  received  almost  conclusive  support  and  proof  at  the  hands  of  Dr.  S.  E.  Dawson,  of  Ottawa. 


20  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

the  continent ;  but  the  great  unknown  mainland  still  rested  in  the 
shadow  of  silent  ages.  And'  it  is  now  remembered  at  the  bar  of 
history  that  Cabot  sailed  seas  of  a  stormier  character  than  Columbus 
ever  saw ;  that  his  resources  were  infinitely  less ;  that  his  rewards 
were  far  smaller,  while  his  life-work  was  disregarded  for  centuries. 

Yet  it  was  he  who  first  planted  the  English  flag  upon  American 
shores,  and  paved  the  way  for  English  settlements  in  Newfoundland 
and  English  naval  supremacy  in  western  seas.  His  discovery  gave 
an  immediate  impetus  also  to  the  maritime  spirit  of  England,  and  it 
supplied  a  later  claim  for  her  to  share  in  the  soil  and  history  and 
stirring  development  of  the  whole  American  continent. 

Following  Columbus  and  Cabot  came  a  stream  of  adventurers, 
explorers  and  navigators.  Sebastian,  a  son  of  John  Cabot,  sailed 
along  the  shores  of  the  new  land  from  Nova  Scotia  to  the  region  of 
Hudson's  Straits  and  was  probably  appalled  by  the  melancholy 
dreariness  of  the  coasts  of  Labrador.  The  eastern  coast,  further  to 
the  south,  was  explored  in  1498  by  Americus  Vespucius  and  after  him 
the  whole  continent  came  in  time  to  be  called.  A  few  years  later, 
Cortereal,  a  Portuguese,  inspired  by  the  enterprise  which  in  those 
days  gave  his  country  an  empire  of  commerce  and  unappreciated  soil, 
explored  the  shores  of  Newfoundland  and  Labrador  and  inaugurated 
the  intercourse  of  Europeans  with  the  Red  men  by  carrying  a  number 
of  them  away  into  slavery.  In  1506,  Denis  of  Honfleur,  a  French- 
man of  unrecorded  position,  visited  the  future  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 
and  boldly  declared  the  whole  region  annexed  to  France  and  subject 
to  its  Crown.  He  brought  back  with  him  a  kidnapped  Indian  child 
which  represented  the  brutal  instincts  of  so-called  civilization  when  in 
contact  with  barbarism  ;  a  considerable  fund  of  knowledge  which 
presently  resulted  in  the  appearance  of  Cartier  upon  the  scene  ;  and 
a  basis  of  claim  to  territory  and  possibilities  of  power  which   might 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  23 

have  made  Francis  the  greatest  of   European  Sovereigns    and    his 
"  Field  of  the  Cloth  of  Gold  "  a  reality  rather  than  a  pageant. 

It  was  not. indeed  the  fault  of  French  courage  and  enterprise  if 
the  land  of  Francis  I,  and  Henry  IV,  and  Louis  XIV,  did  not  become 
greater  in  the  extent  of  its  realm  than  Spain  in  even  the  palmiest 
days  of  its  power  or  Great  .  Britain  at  the  present  time.  In  1534, 
Jacques  Cartier,  a  Breton  mariner  of  some  repute,  a  protege  of 
Philippe  de  Brion-Chabot,  who  was  himself  deep  in  the  King's  favour 
and  a  fervent  believer  in  the  policy  of  extending  the  King's  empire 
in  these  unknown  regions,  set  sail  from  St.  Malo  with  two  small  ships 
containing  120  men,  and  with  dreams  of  power  and  performance  which 
we  can  only  estimate  from  the  dauntless  bearing  of  the  man  in 
difficulties  and  dangers  of  an  after  time  and  from  the  portraits  of  that 
rugged,  alert,  keen-eyed  countenance  which  have  come  down  to  us. 

cartier's  discoveries 

Reaching  the  coasts  of  Newfoundland  on  May  loth  he  passed  on 
to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  and  along  the  shores  of  the  future  Prince 
Edward  Island  to  the  mainland  of  New  Brunswick.  The  season  was 
opportune  and  his  delighted  men,  as  well  as  himself,  revelled  in  a 
region  of  fertility  and  beauty  which  fairly  enchanted  their  senses. 
Forests  rich  in  the  green  shades  of  early  summer,  meadows  full  of 
rippling  streams  and  wild  fruits  and  coloured  blossoms,  rivers  crowded 
with  salmon  and  other  fish,  and  even  the  air  itself  teeming  with  wild 
pigeons,  greeted  the  surprised  explorers.  Indians,  few  in  number 
but  friendly  in  disposition,  met  and  welcomed  them.  In  July  Cartier 
sailed  away  to  further  ventures  with  a  natural  feeling  of  elation  in  his 
heart  at  what  he  had  already  seen  and  experienced.  The  entrance  to 
Miramichi  Bay  was  passed,  the  sheltered  beauties  of  an  indentation 
which  Cartier  called  the  Baie  des  Chaleurs  was  left  behind,  the  Gaspe 
shore  was  reached  and  here,  with  appropriate  ceremony,  Cartier  set 
up  a  cross  thirty  feet  in  height  bearing  upon  it  a  shield  with  the  arqig 


24  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

of  France.  After  appeasing  the  Indians,  who  had  taken  some  natural 
alarm  at  this  action,  he  foolishly  trapped  two  young  savages  and 
carried  them  away  with  him  as  practical  proofs  of  his  work  and 
discoveries.  Then,  without  further  effort,  though  at  this  time  in 
siofht  of  the  shores  of  Anticosti  and  at  the  threshold  of  the  noble 
river  which  he  was  afterwards  to  call  the  St.  Lawrence,  Cartier  turned 
his  prows  homeward  and  once   more   faced  the  wide  waters  of  the 

Atlantic. 

cartier's  second  voyage 

Like  Cabot  and  Columbus  he  had  little  true  conception  of  the 
land  he  had  just  left.  To  him,  and  to  the  imaginative  people  who 
received  him  in  triumph  at  St.  Malo,  or  listened  with  eagerness  to 
the  tales  of  adventure  and  discovery  which  grew  in  volume  and 
vagueness  as  they  traversed  the  interior,  it  was  a  fertile  and  lonely 
island  and  the  great  gulf  of  which  he  had  partly  coasted  the  shores 
was  a  gateway  to  the  eastern  passage  which  had  so  long  been 
sought  to  the  land  of  Cathay — the  region  of  gold  and  romance  and 
dreams.  Popular  enthusiasm  was  aroused.  The  King  was  stirred  by 
new  visions  of  empire  and  tribute.  The  priest  was  roused  by  the 
knowledge  of  new  peoples  to  convert.  The  trader  was  interested  by 
new  possibilities  of  commerce  and  barter.  As  a  consequence,  Cartier 
sailed  again  from  St.  Malo,  on  May  19th,  1535,  with  three  small 
ships,  an  aristocratic  company  of  passengers,  and  the  hopes  and 
prayers  of  many. 

Once  again  he  came  in  sight  of  Anticosti  which  he  called 
Assumption,  and  then  approached  a  bay  which  received  the  memor- 
able name  of  St.  Lawrence  from  the  Saint  whose  feast  day  it  chanced 
to  be.  Up  the  great  river  went  the  interested  and  charmed  explorers, 
touching  the  grand  and  gloomy  portals  of  the  Saguenay,  passing  the 
tree-clad  Isle  aux  Coudres,  shunning  the  black  shadows  of  Cape 
Tourmente,  revelling  in  the  wild  vines  and  luxurious  vegetation   of 


'      DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  25 

L'lle  d'  Orleans.  There  they  received  and  conciliated  the  countless 
savages  who  came  gliding  in  their  swift  and  silent  canoes  from  all  the 
shores  of  the  vast  waterway  to  see  what  these  strange  white  men,  with 
their  stranger  white-winged  and  monstrous  canoes,  were  doing  on  the 
little  island  which  for  the  moment  they  had  called  the  Isle  of  Bacchus. 

Leaving  this  place  after  a  somewhat  difficult  but  friendly  confer- 
ence with  Donnacona,  the  chief  of  these  regions,  Cartier's  little 
squadron  sailed  further  up  the  river  and  cast  anchor  at  the  mouth  of 
the  St.  Charles  and  in  view  of  the  Indian  village  of  Stadacona,  as  it 
nestled  under  the  beetling  crags  which  were  to  soon  see  above  them 
the  crowning  ramparts  of  Quebec.  Hence  the  ever-delighted 
explorers  went  on  up  the  great  river,  and  through  the  Lake  St.  Peter, 
until  they  reached  the  Indian  town  of  Hochelaga  where  it  rested 
under  forest-crowned  heights  to  which  Cartier  gave  the  name  of 
Mount  Royal.  The  expedition  had  been  so  far  like  some  swiftly 
passing  dream  of  pleasure.  The  sights  and  scenes  of  the  noble  river  ; 
the  flushing,  shifting  gorgeousness  of  summer  and  autumnal  colours 
in  the  vast  primeval  forests  which  lined  its  banks  ;  the  unbroken  wild- 
ness  and  occasionally  sombre  splendour  of  cliff  and  crag  and 
promontory  ;  the  panorama  of  passing  savage  life  and  the  unstinted 
hospitality  of  admiring  and  worshipping  natives  at  Orleans,  at 
Stadacona  and  now  at  Hochelaga;  were  enough  to  surely  warrant 
the  adventurous  settlers  in  looking  forward  with  confidence  to  the 
future.  They  returned,  after  a  few  days,  to  Stadacona  loaded  down 
with  gifts  from  the  friendly  natives — boats  heaped  with  fish  and 
ripened  corn — and  with  memories  of  a  respect  tinged  with  reverence 
and  a  confidence  in  their  honour  and  goodness  which  should  never 
have  been  shattered. 

But  they  had  no  real  knowledge  of  what  was  coming  to  counter- 
balance the  period  of  pleasantness  now  rapidly  passing  away.  A 
glimpse  at  Acadie  in  days  of  summer  loveliness,  or  of  the  shores  of 


26  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

the  St.  Lawrence  garbed  in  autumnal  beauty,  was  but  ill  preparation 
for  the  blasts  of  winter  which,  in  its  most  intense  form  of  cold  and  its 
greatest  abundance  of  ice  and  snow,  was  soon  to  be  on  them.  By  the 
time,  indeed,  that  they  had  got  their  vessels  into  a  sort  of  sheltered 
enclosure  and  put  up  some  rough  structures  for  themselves  the 
change  had  come. 

A    WINTER    OF    MUCH    SUFFERING 

The  terrors  of  that  winter  can  hardly  be  adequately  described. 
All  about  the  prospective  settlers  was  a  boundless  area  of  snow  and 
ice.  Their  clothing  was  thin  and  adapted  only  to  a  mild  and  pleasant 
clime.  Their  fears  were  in  proportion  to  their  ignorance  and  their 
sufferings  from  a  malignant  form  of  scurvy  were  as  great  as  from  cold 
and  other  hardships.  Twenty-five  of  the  men  died  and  by  the  time 
of  early  spring,  with  its  first  welcome  signs  of  warmth  and  of  the  pass- 
ing away  of  that  over-whelming  nightmare  of  surrounding  whiteness, 
the  balance  of  the  little  party  were  tottering  in  feebleness  on  the  brink 
of  the  grave.  Fortunately,  the  Indians,  had  been  kind,  though  suffer- 
ing somewhat  themselves  and  in  spite  of  their  natural  hardiness,  from 
the  severity  of  the  winter.  They  had  prescribed  a  simple  mixture 
for  the  sick  which'  proved  efficacious  and  indeed,  probably  saved  the 
lives  of  the  remaininof  white  men. 

As  soon  as  the  loosening  ice  on  the  river  permitted,  Cartier 
turned  two  of  his  ships  homeward,  leaving  one  behind  to  be  found 
307  years  afterwards  (1843)  sunk  in  the  bed  of  the  St.  Charles. 
Before  going  he  seized  Donnacona  and  nine  of  his  chiefs,  as  visible 
trophies  for  the  eye  of  France  and  as  a  lasting,  though  unintended, 
monument  to  his  own  folly  and  ingratitude.  They  died  without 
seeing  again  their  native  land,  and,  in  dying,  left  a  legacy  of  future 
bitterness  and  pain  to  French  settlers  and  the  white  man  generally 
which  it  was  well  for  Cartier  he  could  not  anticipate. 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  27 

Again,  In  1541,  the  intrepid  explorer,  with  the  patronage  and 
co-operation  of  the  Sieurde  Roberval,  a  wealthy  nobleman  of  Picardy, 
started  for  this  scene  of  mingled  pleasures  and  privations,  Francis 
I.  had,  in  the  meantime,  recovered  a  little  from  years  of  conflict 
with  his  powerful  rival  Charles  V.  of  Spain  and  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire,  and  had  made  De  JRoberval  Viceroy  of  New  France,  with 
Cartier  as  Captain-General.  The  latter  arrived  at  Stadacona  in 
August  and  commenced  a  settlement  a  few  miles  higher  up  the  river, 
which  he  called  Charlesbourg ;  and  there  he  began  to  cultivate  the 
soil  and  build  a  fort.  The  natives  naturally  proved  unfriendly  when 
they  found  that  their  chiefs  had  not  returned  with  the  white  men,  and 
the  winter  which  ensued  was  full  of  gloom  and  disheartening  privation. 
A  couple  of  vessels  had  been  sent  back  to  France  for  aid  before  the 
cold  season  began  but,  with  the  first  flush  of  spring-time  and  without 
waiting  their  return,  Cartier  pulled  up  his  stakes  and  started  for  home. 
Off  the  coast  of  Newfoundland  he  met  De  Roberval,  himself,  with 
three  ships,  plenty  of  provisions,  and  200  new  colonists  of  both  sexes, 
and  was  commanded  to  return.  But  Cartier  seems  to  have  lost  both 
head  and  heart  so  far  as  this  enterprise  was  concerned  and  to  have 
longed  for  a  sight  once  more  of  the  fair  shores  of  sunny  France. 
Whatever  the  reason,  he  disobeyed  the  orders  of  his  superior  and 
escaped  during  the  night  with  his  vessels  and  men. 

De  Roberval  went  on  to  his  destination,  put  up  a  large  building 
for  the  mixed  purpose  of  accommodation  and  defence  and  prepared 
to  face  a  winter  of  whose  severity  he  only  knew  by  vague  hear-say. 
The  privations  of  the  season  were  enhanced  by  the  unfriendliness  of 
the  natives  as  well  as  by  the  character  of  the  convicts  who  constituted 
a  large  portion  of  his  following.  Sixty  men  perished  during  these 
weary  months  from  cold,  or  hunger,  or  scurvy,  while  the  cord  and 
whips  and  prison  found  a  place  in  connection  with  many  others  of  the 
insubordinate,  would-be  colonists.      In  the  spring  De  Roberval,  who 


28  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

was  a  brave  and  venturesome  leader,  attempted  to  explore  the 
unknown  interior,  but  without  success  and  with  the  loss  of  some  eight 
men  by  drowning.  He  clung  to  his  settlement,  however,  during 
another  winter  of  hardships  and  then  at  last  fled  back  to  France.  Five 
years  later,  when  his  memories  of  scurvy  and  starvation,  of  snow  and 
ice,  of  hand-to-mouth  living  upon  fish  and  roots,  had  become  some- 
what dimmed,  or  perhaps  forgotten  in  a  sudden  rush  of  summer 
recollections  and  memories  of  the  wild  free  life  of  the  primeval  forest 
and  rolling  rivers  of  the  new  world,  De  Roberval  started  again  for 
the  scene  which  seems  to  have  had  such  intense  fascination  for  those 
who  once  breathed  its  vastness  of  air  and  space. 

The  result  of  that  expedition  of  1549  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of 
history  and,  whether  the  tradition  of  its  sailing  up  the  dark  waters  of 
the  Saguenay  and  being  lost  while  searching  for  some  land  of  gold 
and  jewels  and  alleged  enchantment  is  true,  or  not,  will  never  be 
really  known.  It  seems  probable,  however,  that  the  gallant  nobleman 
and  his  followers  were  either  swallowed  up  in  a  storm  at  sea,  or  lost 
as  the  first  European  victims  of  an  Indian  fear  which  was  soon  to 
change  into  a  bitter  hatred.  Cartier  lived  some  years  longer  to  enjoy 
the  quiet  of  home  life  and  the  pleasures  of  a  patent  of  nobility 
which  had  come  to  the  brave  seaman  of  St.  Malo  as  a  reward  for  the 
efforts  of  his  stirring  and  vigorous  career. 

THE  FRENCH  AND  THE  ENGLISH 

During  the  next  fifty  years  these  adventurous  efforts  to  found  a 
New  France  beyond  the  seas  were  forgotten  in  the  storms  of  internal 
dissension  and  war  which  came  to  old  France.  England,  which  in 
the  period  just  considered  had  been  devoting  the  energies  of  her 
picturesque  buccaneers  and  always  gallant  seamen  to  the  gold-ships 
of  Spain  and  the  settlements  on  South  American  shores,  or  in  the 
West  Indies,  made  by  the  same  great  Power,  now  turned  her  attention 
to    the    north.      Sir    Martin  Frobisher   set   foot   on    the   coasts   of 


DISCOVERTES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  29 

Labrador  in  1576;  Sir  Francis  Drake  in  the  following  year  sighted 
the  snowy  mountain  tops  of  British  Columbia ;  Sir  Humphry 
Gilbert,  in  1583,  led  an  expedition  of  well-equipped  and  gallant 
colonists  to  the  shores  of  Newfoundland  and  took  possession  of  the 
Island,  whose  harbours  were  thronged  by  cod-fishing  fleets  from 
France,  Spain,  Portugal  and  England,  in  the  name  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
He  established  English  authority,  enacted  various  laws,  and  pro- 
claimed, under  Royal  charter,  his  possession  of  the  soil  for  600  miles 
in  every  direction  from  St.  John's — a  region  which  included  New 
Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  Labrador,  and  part  of  Quebec  as  they  are 
in  modern  days.  Considerable  exploring  work  was  done  by  the 
gallant  Admiral,  whose  character  of  mingled  truth  and  gentleness 
and  dauntless  courage  fills  such  an  attractive  page  in  history.  It  was 
beautifully  exemplified  as  he  sat  in  the  stern  of  his  frail  and  founder- 
ing vessel,  during  the  return  voyage  to  England  in  the  stormy  winter 
season,  and  sank  to  his  final  rest  with  the  words  of  consolation  to  his 
crew  :  "  Cheer  up  lads,  we  are  as  near  to  Heaven  at  sea  as  on  land." 
Once  more,  as  the  century  drew  to  its  close,  French  enterprise 
began  to  re-assert  itself  and  the  mantle  of  the  ill-fated  De  Roberval 
was  taken  up  by  a  nobleman  of  Brittany,  the  Marquis  de  la  Roche. 
In  1598  he  obtained  appointment  from  the  King  as  Viceroy  of  New 
France  and  prepared  an  expedition  of  one  ship  which  he  filled  with  a 
crew  gathered  from  the  common  prisons.  It  was  an  ill-beginning 
with  a  worse  ending.  He  reached,  in  summer  season,  the  shifting 
sands  of  Sable  Island  and  found  there  plenty  of  good  water  and  herds 
of  wild  cattle  bred  from  those  left  by  De  Lery's  settlement  of  eighty 
years  before.  It  seemed  an  excellent  place  to  leave  his  convict 
colonists  at  while  he  went  on  a  further  voyage  of  exploration.  He 
landed  them  for  a  period,  which  he  promised  should  be  brief,  and 
started  for  the  mainland  only  to  be  swept  out  to  sea  by  a  sudden 
storm  and  back  to  France.     There  he  was  seized  by  a  powerful  rival 


30  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

and  consigned  to  prison.  When  at  last  he  got  word  to  King  Henry 
and  was  allowed  to  take  a  ship  out  to  the  rescue  of  his  would-be 
settlers  it  was  to  find  himself  face  to  face  with  one  of  the  dark 
tragedies  of  history  and  to  discover  only  a  pitiful  remnant  of  shaggy, 
despairing  creatures  who  looked  more  like  brutes  than  men. 

They  had,  at  first,  been  delighted  with  their  liberty,  with  the 
balmy  freshness  of  the  summer  air,  with  the  brief  abundance  of  fresh 
meat  and  the  wild  berries  clustering  to  the  lip.  But  the  cattle  began 
to  disappear,  time  commenced  to  hang  heavy  on  their  hands,  no 
returning  ship  was  visible,  the  heat  was  occasionally  intense,  and  was 
suddenly  succeeded  by  the  first  storms  of  autumn  sweeping  over  the 
low  and  unprotected  surface  of  the  level,  treeless  island.  Then  came 
the  sense  of  desertion,  the  feeling  of  unutterable  despair,  the  loneli- 
ness of  intense  isolation,  the  cruel,  uncontrolled  passion  of  men 
without  moral  or  religious  scruple.  They  fought  and  tried  to  kill 
each  other  and  then  there  came  sweeping  down,  and  around  them, 
the  wintry  storms  of  the  wildest  and  most  exposed  spot  on  the  whole 
Atlantic  coast.  How  any  of  them  ever  survived  that  winter  is  a 
marvel — that  some  did  live  through  it  is  a  fact.  Broken  in  health 
and  heart  and  fortune,  De  la  Roche  returned  to  France  with  the 
miserable  remnant  of  his  expedition,  and  died  soon  afterwards. 

Meanwhile  an  effort  had  been  made  by  a  naval  ofificer  of  Rouen, 
named    Chauvin,   and    a   trader  of   St.    Malo,   called   Pontgrave,   to 
establish  a  colony  on  the  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence  for  purposes  of 
fur-trading.       They    procured    from    the    King    certain    rights    of 
monopoly  and  the  beginning  was  made  of  what  eventually  became  a 
great  business.     The  small   settlement  started  for  this  purpose  at 
Tadoussac,  near  the  junction  of  the  Saguenay  and  the  St.  Lawrence, 
was  not  however  as  successful  in  a  colonizing  sense.     Sixteen   men 
were  left  to  hold  the  port  through  the  winter  of  1599  and,  in  the  very 
season  which  proved  so   fatal   to  the  miserable  refugees  on  Sable 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  33 

Island,  the  ill-equipped  and  ignorant  colonists  on  the  mainland  were 
dying  of  cold  and  starvation.  When  the  spring  traders  came  again 
they  found  their  little  colony  broken  up  and  only  two  or  three 
survivors  living  amongst  the  Indians.  The  fur-trade  was  continued, 
but  no  further  effort  at  colonization  was  made  at  this  time. 

Elsewhere,  and  amid  very  different  surroundings,  the  continent 
was  being  claimed  or  explored.  Balboa  had  discovered  the  Pacific 
Ocean  and  dispelled  the  dream  of  America  being  a  part  of  Asia. 
Spain,  at  the  hands  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro  and  Ponce  de  Leon,  had 
conquered  or  claimed  the  empires  of  Mexico  and  Peru  and  the  wilder 
glades  of  Florida.  England  had  established  a  fugitive  settlement 
or  two  in  Virginia,  and  Port  Royal  was  soon  to  be  founded  and 
Acadie  become  an  historic  name  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  present 
Dominion. 

THE    CAREER    OF    CHAMPLAIN 

The  pivotal  point  in  the  establishment  of  Canada,  or  New 
France,  was,  however,  the  career  of  Champlain.  This  greatest  char- 
acter in  the  early  period  of  its  history  was  a  gentleman  by  birth  and 
a  native  of  Bruage,  on  the  Biscayan  coast,  where  he  was  born  in  1567. 
He  became  a  Captain  of  the  Royal  Marines  in  later  years  and  was  a 
soldier  in  the  wars  of  the  League,  under  Henry  of  Navarre.  With  a 
combined  experience  of  sea  and  shore,  the  inspiration  of  Henry's 
patriotic  character,  the  possession  of  personal  qualities  of  courage, 
chivalry  and  religious  zeal,  Champlain  was  an  ideal  pioneer  leader. 
In  him  the  zeal  of  the  missionary  is  said  to  have  tempered  the  fire  of 
patriotism  and  there  is  no  question  of  a  devotion  to  duty  which 
scorned  privation  and  disappointment,  and  a  courage  which  endured 
all  things  for  the  achievement  of  a  far-away  end.  When  internal  peace 
came  to  France,  by  the  accession  of  Henry  IV.,  Champlain  had  soon 
tired  of  the  life  of  Courts  and  had  journeyed  to  the  West  Indies  and 
Mexico.      It  was,  therefore,  very  natural  when  the   King  turned  his 


34  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

attention  and  ambition  to  the  new  world  and  Aymar  de  Chastes, 
Governor  of  Dieppe,  was  given  permission  to  resume  the  work  of 
colonization,  that  he  should  see  in  Champlain  the  man  for  the  work. 
It  was  readily  taken  up  by  him  and,  in  1603,  accompanied  by  Pont- 
grave  of  fur-trade  fame,  and  commanding  two  tiny  vessels  of  twelve 
and  fifteen  tons  burthen,  he  crossed  the  stormy  seas,  sailed  up  the 
solitary  St.  Lawrence,  passed  the  deserted  out-post  of  Tadoussac,  the 
now  vacant  site  of  the  Indian  village  at  Stadacona,  the  ruined  build- 
ings of  Cartier  at  Cape  Rouge,  and  came  in  time  to  the  tenantless 
site  of  the  once  beautiful  and  flourishing  Hochelaga.  Neither  the 
mighty  rock  of  Quebec,  nor  the  lofty  sides  of  Mount  Royal,  now 
sheltered  the  wigwams  and  huts  of  the  one-time  friendly  natives. 
Nothing  was  done  by  the  expedition,  excepting  the  capture  of  a 
cargo  of  furs,  and  on  their  return  the  two  leaders  found,  to  their 
serious  loss,  that  the  generous  De  Chastes  was  dead  and  that  Henry's 
mind  was  filled  for  the  moment  with  other  thoughts. 

For  a  year  after  this  Champlain  remained  in  France  and  then 
accompanied  De  Monts  and  Poutrincourt  upon  their  colonizing 
venture  in  Acadie,  the  land  of  winter  ice  and  snow  and  summer  love- 
liness— changing  conditions  which  it  seemed  impossible  for  the  early 
French  settlers  to  fully  grasp  in  all  their  significance  of  needed  prepa- 
ration and  adaptation.  Then  followed  the  ups  and  downs  of  several 
years,  the  foundation  of  Port  Royal  and  its  capture  by  the  English 
who,  meanwhile,  had  been  making  firm  their  ground  in  Virginia,  as 
they  did  a  little  later  in  Newfoundland  and  endeavoured  to  do  on  the 
shores  of  Hudson's  Bay.  The  unfortunate  navigator,  who  gave  his 
name  to  the  great  inland  sea,  lost  his  life  in  its  exploration,  though 
he  left  behind  an  English  claim  to  sovereignty  of  its  shores  based 
upon  his  service  under  an  English  King.  Before  this  occurred 
Champlain  had  tired  of  the  plots  and  complications  of  Acadian  settle- 
ment and,  under  the  patronage  of  Sieur  de  Monts,  and  accompanied 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  35 

by  Pontgrave,  had  turned  his  attention  once  more  to  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  to  what  was  to  be  the  great  work  of  his  hfe. 

In  1608,  therefore,  the  determined  colonizer  and  the  vigorous 
trader  started  together  up  the  great  and  silent  river  and  reached 
again  the  spot  where  Stadacona  had  once  stood.  Upon  the  deserted 
site  and  under  the  shelter  of  the  beetling  rock  upon  which  his  future 
fortress  was  to  be  established,  Champlain  laid  the  foundations  of 
Quebec.  It  was  but  a  village,  square  in  shape,  with  wooden  build- 
ings, and  surrounded  by  a  wooden  wall  and  ditch,  fortified  by  bastions 
and  guns.  But  it  was  enough  for  the  moment  and  to  the  man  who 
had  the  instinct  of  empire  and  government  in  his  breast.  Before  very 
long  he  detected  and  suppressed  with  severe  punishments  a  plot  on 
the  part  of  the  fur-traders  to  do  away  with  his  stern  but  wholesome 
rule  and  to  make  trade  the  entire  aim,  instead  of  the  subsidiary  con- 
dition, of  the  settlement.  The  chief  conspirator  was  promptly  hung 
and  others  were  sent  to  France  in  chains,  or  condemned  to  the  galleys. 

AN    EVENT   OF    LASTING   CONSEQUENCES 

During  the  following  year  occurred  an  event  which  had  lasting 
consequences  and  was  the  nominal  cause  of  the  prolonged  and  bloody 
conflict  between  Iroquois  and  French.  Its  importance  has  probably 
been  exaggerated  as  the  feud  was  inevitable  in  any  case.  The  Iroquois 
would  have  brooked  no  rival  to  their  savage  empire  had  Cham- 
plain  never  given  any  assistance  to  the  Hurons  whom  they  had 
long  intended  to  crush  and  did  eventually  crush.  Moreover,  they 
were  quick  as  the  wolves  which  roamed  the  wilderness  in  count- 
less numbers,  to  detect  the  presence  of  danger,  and,  no  doubt,  had 
already  heard  traditions  and  plentiful  rumours  of  the  conduct  of 
Cartier  and  other  explorers  in  deceiving  and  seizing  friendly  natives 
— perhaps  members  of  wandering  bands  with  which  they  may  have 
been  on  friendly  terms.  Be  that  as  it  may,  however,  Champlain  did 
certainly  precipitate  the  issue  when,  in  the  early  summer  of   1609,  he 


36  DISCOVEkins  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

espoused  the  cause  of  the  Ottawa  Algonquins,  as  friends  and  allies  of 
the  Hurons,  and  started  from  Quebec  with  eleven  Frenchmen  and  a 
flotilla  of  canoes  filled  with  Indians,  to  attack  the  fiercest  and  ablest 
of  all  the  Indian  tribes  or  nations.  *  Three-fourths  of  the  native  fol- 
lowers early  deserted  the  expedition  as  the  result  of  a  quarrel  and  he 
sent  back  all  but  two  of  hfs  own  men  to  Quebec. 

Then,  with  only  sixty  Indians  in  his  train,  but  with  a  dauntless 
bearing  and  determination  which  carried  all  before  him,  the  "  man 
with  the  iron  breast"  proceeded  upon  his  journey  into  the  vast, 
unknown  interior.  Over  rapids  and  foaming  falls,  upon  varied  rivers 
and  great  lakes,  through  dense  forests  and  a  primeval  wilderness,  the 
intrepid  soldier  fought  his  way.  He  discovered  the  Lake  Champlain 
of  a  later  day  and  upon  its  shores  met  the  Iroquois  in  battle.  It  was 
a  picturesque  scene.  Here,  amid  forests  centuries  old  the  military 
civilization  of  Europe  stood  for  the  first  time  face  to  face  with  the 
not  ignoble  savagery  of  America.  Champlain,  with  his  steel  breast- 
plate and  plumed  casque,  his  matchlock  in  hand,  his  sword  by  his  side 
and  his  little  group  of  followers  behind  him  quietly  awaited  the  attack 
of  two  hundred  of  the  fiercest,  tallest  and  strongest  savages  of  the 
new  world  !  The  war-whoop  of  the  Indians  was  met  by  a  discharge 
from  the  French  leader's  matchlock  which  killed  or  wounded  three  of 
the  Iroquois  braves.  This  use  of  lightning  to  destroy  his  enemies 
with  was  too  much  for  the  superstition  of  the  natives  and  they  fled 
precipitately.  Many  were  killed  and  some  captured  and  Champlain, 
for  the  first  time,  beheld  the  tortures  of  which  he  had  probably  heard 
much  and  which  the  Algonquins  at  once  proceeded  to  inflict  upon  the 
prisoners. 

During  the  succeeding  year  Champlain  took  another  journey  and 
reached  the  mouth  of  the  Richelieu,  where  he  once  more  fought  and 
overcame  a  body  of  Iroquois  who  had,  in  this  case,  placed  themselves 
inside  a  barricade  which  had  to  be  stormed  and  captured.      In  1613, 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  37 

the  aj^venturous  pioneer,  with  only  five  companions  and  two  small 
canoes,  went  on  a  long  journey  of  exploration.  He  passed  with  diffi- 
culty around  the  Longue  Sault  and  Carillon  Rapids,  paddled  up  the 
Ottawa  to  the  Rideau  Falls  and  the  foaming  cataract  of  the  Chau- 
diere,  and  reached  Allumette  Island.  There  he  rested  for  a  while 
before  turning  back,  while  all  around  him  was  the  solitude  of  vast 
wilds  unbroken  by  any  sounds  save  those  of  nature.  Champlain 
imagined  much  and  hoped  much,  but  not  even  he,  with  all  his 
visionary  expectations  of  finding  a  path  to  the  silks  and  spices  of  the 
far  East,  could  have  dreamed  of  this  very  region  one  day  becoming 
the  home  of  splendid  legislative  halls  and  the  seat  of  government  in 
a  great  British  country.  Two  years  later  he  organized  another  expe- 
dition against  the  Iroquois  and  this  time  pushed,  further  up  the 
Ottawa  until  he  reached  the  Mattawa,  crossed  by  a  short  portage  into 
Lake  Nipissing  and  thence  descended  the  French  River  until  the 
vast  expanse  of  Lake  Huron  was  reached.  Upon  the  shores  of 
Georgian  Bay,  its  great  inlet,  he  collected  an  Indian  force  from 
amongst  the  palisaded  villages  of  the  Hurons  which  then  crowded  the 
rolling  and  fertile  fields  of  the  future  County  of  Simcoe. 

EXPEDITIONS    AGAINST    THE    IROQUOIS 

In  September  he  led  a  large  war-party  by  the  channel  of  the 
Trent  to  Lake  Ontario,  crossed  it  at  a  narrow  point  and  then,  leaving 
their  canoes,  his  Indians  stole  like  shadows  throuorh  the  brilliant 
autumnal  woods  till  they  came  to  a  well-guarded  and  palisaded  town 
of  the  Onondagas.  A  sudden  and  wild  attack  was  repulsed,  the  les- 
sons in  skilled  warfare  which  Champlain  had  tried  to  give  his  reckless 
braves  were  unobserved,  and  a  second  onslaught  met  with  the  same 
result.  He  himself  was  wounded,  his  prestige  was  largely  gone  and 
the  Hurons  became  thoroughly  disheartened.  Reinforcements  were 
awaited  but  did  not  come  and,  five  days  later,  they  made  haste  home- 
ward, carrying  with  them  a  leader  who  was  suffering  from  a  sore 


g$  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

heart  as  well  as  a  wounded  body.  Promises  to  take  him  back  to 
Quebec  were  broken,  and  he  had  to  winter  amongst  the  tribes.  With 
him,  however,  was  the  Recollet  priest,  Le  Caron,  and  Champlain 
occupied  his  time  by  helping  in  tlje  foundation  of  a  mission,  in  visit- 
ing allied  tribes,  and  in  patching  up  a  dispute  between  the  Algonquins 
and  the  Hurons.  In  the  spring  he  returned  to  Quebec  and  was  wel- 
comed by  those  who  had  given  up  all  hope  of  ever  seeing  him  again. 
This  was  his  last  distant  expedition  of  a  warlike  or  exploring 
character.  In  1620  the  Iroquois  came  swarming  down  upon  the 
French  fortress  at  Quebec  and  around  the  stone  convent  of  the 
Recollets  on  the  St.  Charles,  but  were  unable  to  do  more  than  harry 
the  country  and  capture  some  Hurons  who,  in  one  case,  were  tor- 
tured to  death  before  the  eyes  of  the  horrified  priests  of  the  St. 
Charles.  A  little  later,  Champlain  had  to  suppress  a  plot  for  the 
destruction  of  Quebec  amongst  an  Algonquin  tribe — the  Montagnais 
• — whom  he  had  greatly  befriended  and  helped  and  whose  treachery 
cut  him  to  the  quick.  But,  although  no  more  active  campaigns  were 
undertaken  by  him,  he  had  to  face  the  continued  and  sleepless  hatred 
of  the  Iroquois,  and  no  man  knew  from  day  to  day^nd  year  to  year 
at  what  moment  the  war-whoop  of  the  savage  might  not  be  heard 
from  the  four  quarters  of  the  horizon.  Some  good  came  out  of  the 
evil  which  the  brave  Frenchman  had  created  by  increasing  and 
deepening  the  hostility  of  the  Iroquois.  It  made  the  Hurons  more 
amenable  to  French  and  missionary  influence  and  this  Champlain 
w^ould  have  considered  the  greatest  of  all  good  ends. 

DISCOVERY    OF    THE    GREAT    LAKES 

Champlain,  during  this  part  of  his  career,  had  discovered  Lake 
Champlain  and  Lake  Nipissing,  Lake  Huron  and  Lake  Ontario,  and 
had  explored  the  great  Ottawa  and  many  a  lesser  stream.  He  had 
proven  the  pioneer  of  French  energy  in  a  vast  region  to  which  he 
laid  claim  in  the  name  of  his  King.     This  was  much  for  one  man  to 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  39 

do,  but  it  was  by  no  means  all  that  he  achieved.  From  161 2  to  1629, 
from  1633  to  his  death  two  years  later,  he  governed  strongly  and  well 
the  New  France  which  he  fondly  hoped  was  going  to  be  a  great 
empire  for  his  country  and  his  race.  During  these  years  his  difficul- 
ties were  immense.  Not  only  was  there  trouble  with  the  Indians 
and  with  refractory  settlers,  but  there  was  the  reckless  criminality  of 
t!ie  fur-traders  who  corrupted  the  savages  with  brandy  and  too  often 
taught  them  other  phases  of  immorality  which  they  had  never  known. 
Over  and  over  again  the  lordship,  or  viceroyalty,  of  New  France 
changed  hands.  There  was  neither  continuity  of  system  nor  govern- 
ment. The  Associated  Merchants  of  St.  Malo  and  Rouen  held  power 
for  a  time  under  the  nominal  rule  of  the  Prince  de  Conde  and  strove 
in  vain  to  oust  Champlain  from  his  position.  Then  two  Huguenot 
gentlemen — brothers  named  De  Caen  —  obtained  the  fur-trading 
monopoly,  and  religious  disputes  began  to  trouble  a  Colony  shadowed 
at  that  very  moment  by  the  scalping-knife  of  the  Iroquois.  To  them 
succeeded  the  Due  de  Ventadour,  whose  object  was  neither  trade  nor 
settlement  but  the  salvation  of  souls.  Under  his  patronage  Jesuit 
priests  began  to  pour  into  the  country  and  to  follow  the  savages  to 
their  lairs  in  every  part  of  a  vast  and  unknown  region. 

Another  change  came  when  Richelieu  succeeded  to  power  in 
France.  He  strengthened  Champlain's  hands  for  the  moment, 
founded  in  1628  the  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates  with 
Champlain  as  a  member  and  with  a  charter  of  trade  and  power 
extending  over  New  France,  Acadie,  Newfoundland,  and  Florida ; 
proclaimed  the  Colony  an  absolutely  Catholic  possession  and  forbade 
the  settlement  of  a  Protestant  within  its  bounds ;  pledged  the 
Company  to  send  out  6,cxxd  settlers  within  fifteen  years  ;  and  gave  to 
the  Company,  as  a  personal  gift  from  the  King,  two  well-armed  battle- 
ships. But  all  this  was  of  little  avail  for  some  years.  War  was  being 
waged  with  England,  supplies  had  been  cut  off,  the  little  Colony  was 


40  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

Starving  or  living  upon  roots  and,  in  1629,  Admiral  Kirke  sailed  up 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  captured  the  place.  By  the  Treaty  of  St. 
Germain-en-Laye  in  1632  New  France  and  Acadie  were  given  up 
again  by  England,  Champlain  was  restored  to  his  post,  the  settlement 
became  a  devout  centre  for  the  conversion  of  savages,  lawlessness 
was  suppressed  and  trading  interests  were  made  subservient  to 
administrative  necessities.  Everything  promised  a  prolonged  period 
of  peace  and  progress. 

On  Christmas  Day,  1635,  however,  the  only  man  who  could  have 
achieved  such  conditions  in  a  permanent  sense  died  suddenly,  with  an 
horizon  of  hoped-for  rest  and  happiness  in  full  view.  During  five 
years  of  the  earlier  period  his  brave  wife  had  lived  with  him  and  then 
he  had  insisted  upon  taking  her  back  to  France.  But  for  years  he 
had  been  without  her  and  was  now  looking  forward  to  a  settled  home 
and  a  reasonably  /^uiet  life  in  this  Colony  which  he  had  founded  and 
guarded  and  nursed  as  a  mother  might  her  only  child.  He  had 
fought  the  Iroquois,  fought  the  convict  spirit  of  early  settlers,  fought 
the  intrigues  of  court  and  religious  interests,  fought  the  fur-traders' 
greed  and  cruelty,  fought  the  English  invader  and  the  still  worse 
enemies  of  cold  and  hunger.  He  had  conquered  all,  but  was  now,  at  last, 
himself  beaten  by  death.  His  career  presents  a  most  striking  picture 
and  he  well  deserves  his  place  as  a  hero,  not  only  of  French  Canada 
but  of  all  Canada,  whether  French  or  English. 

LA    SALLE    AND    THE    INTERIOR 

During  these  later  years  others  besides  Champlain  had  been 
traversing  the  wilds  and  noting  the  location  of  vast  unknown  bodies 
of  water.  Jesuit  priests  and  French  trappers  and  hunters  passed  up 
the  rivers  and  reached  the  shores  of  countless  lakes — south  and  east 
and  west  from  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  one  class  was  seeking 
souls  and  the  other  furs — but  they  all  traversed  new  regions  and 
encountered  the  forces  of  nature  in  some  of  its  greatest  environments. 


DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS  41 

Lake  Michigan  was  sighted  by  Jean  Nicolet  in  1634,  Lake  Erie  by 
Fathers  Chamonot  and  Brebeuf  in  1640,  Lake  Superior  by  some 
now  forgotten  Coureurs  de  bois  in  1659.  Father  Marquette  and  a 
fur-trader  named  JoUiete  saw  the  upper  waters  of  the  Mississippi  for 
the  first  time  in  1673  ^^^  paddled  down  past  the  mouths  of  the 
IlHnois,  the  Missouri  and  the .  Ohio,  Meantime,  Nicolas  Perrot,  a 
daring  adventurer  whose  career  is  one  long  series  of  thrilling  incidents, 
was  the  first  white  man  to  stand  upon  the  site  of  Chicago,  as,  in  1671, 
Father  Albanal  was  the  first  European  to  appear  upon  the  shores  of 
the  stormy  waters  in  which  Hudson  had  perished  nearly  a  century 
before.  Seven  years  from  this  last  date  Father  Hennepin,  looking 
out  from  the  dense  woods  he  had  been  traversing  amid  the  sullen 
roar  of  some  great  wonder  of  nature,  beheld  the  Falls  of  Niagara  in 
all  their  primeval  splendour  and  solitude. 

Much,  therefore,  was  being  done  in  the  later  days  of  Champlain 
and  more  was  done  in  the  fifty  years  which  followed  to  unroll  the 
map  of  North  America.  Still,  it  was  all  so  vast  and  vague,  the 
knowledge  so  varied  and  detached,  that  there  was  little  real  conception 
of  the  connected  position  of  the  five  Great  Lakes,  with  their 
innumerable  satellites  and  feeding  rivers  and  their  out-pour  through 
the  St.  Lawrence  into  the  sea.  The  vision  of  a  route  to  Cathay,  or 
the  enchanted  East,  yet  lingered  in  many  minds  and  even  affected  the 
gallant  La  Salle  as,  after  various  adventures,  the  expenditure  of 
private  nieans  upon  fur-trading  expeditions  and  minor  explorations, 
he  set  out  in  1682  to  find  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  and,  perhaps, 
a  passage  to  China  itself.  Accompanied  by  Henri  de  Tonti,  who 
had  proved  his  right  arm  in  many  undertakings.  La  Salle  crossed 
from  Lake  Michigan  into  the  current  of  the  Illinois  and  thence  into 
the  great  river  itself.  As  they  passed  down  the  Mississippi  amid 
Indians,  sometimes  friendly,  sometimes  hostile,  and  for  what  seemed 


42  DISCOVERIES  AND  EXPLORATIONS 

an  almost  endless  distance,  they  went  from  winter  into  the  budding 
beauties  of  spring  and  the  ripe  richness  of  summer. 

In  triumph  they  reached  the  mouth  of  the  river  and  proclaimed 
the  whole  vast  region  a  French  possession  under  the  name  of 
Louisiana  ;  in  triumph  they  returned  to  Quebec  in  the  spring  of  1683  ; 
in  triumph  La  Salle  appeared  later  on  at  the  French  Court.  As  with 
all  these  early  explorers  the  fascination  of  the  scene  was,  however, 
too  great  and  he  again  sailed  from  France  with  a  strong  expedition 
to  find  the  mouth  of  the  river  from  the  sea  and  to  found  a  colony 
which  should  make  the  country  French  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name. 
He  failed  to  find  the  place,  landed  his  men  some  hundreds  of  miles 
away  and  started  overland  in  search  of  it.  In  the  heart  of  the  fearful 
wilderness  of  forest,  swamp  and  sluggish  streams  his  men  mutinied 
and  at  their  hands  died  the  great  explorer. 

But  his  life  had  once  more  proved  the  venturesome  courage  of 
his  race  and  had  aided  the  work  of  Cartier  and  Champlain,  of  devoted 
priest  and  daring  voyageur,  of  fur-trader  and  reckless  young  noble,  in 
opening  to  France  a  possible  pathway  to  power  and  in  unrolling  the 
map  of  a  vast  continent. 


CHAPTER  II 
The  Indians  of  Early  Canada 

THE  story  of  the  Indian  in  North  America  has  never  been  fully 
written.  Parkman,  in  brilliant  but  restricted  pages,  has 
described  the  custom  and  characteristics  of  the  Iroquois  and 
Hurons  as  they  appeared  in  the  days  of  the  famous  struggle  with  the 
French.  Many  volumes  of  American  history  have  been  produced 
which  illustrate  and  depict  the  cruelty  or  treachery  of  the  white  man's 
enemy,  but  do  scant  justice  to  the  noble  qualities  which  he  undoubtedly 
possessed.  Historic  memories  yet  linger  in  a  myriad  villages 
throughout  Canada  and  the  United  States,  of  midnight  raids  and 
scalping  expeditions  and  savage  rites ;  while  the  smoke  of  blazing 
settlements  and  the  cry  of  tortured  prisoners  echo  down  the  aisles  of 
time  and  still  shadow  witfi  gloom  and  bitterness  the  pen  of  the  most 
impartial  writer.  Especially  has  this  been  the  case  in  British  America, 
where  the  prolonged  conflict  of  the  Iroquois  and  French,  and  the  mar- 
vellous heroism  of  pioneer  priests  and  missionaries  have  stirred  into 
ready  sympathy  the  racial  sentiment  of  every  student  and  speaker. 

A    CHARACTER   OF    SINGULAR   COMPLEXITY 

Yet  there  was  much  to  admire  and  respect  in  these  savage  pos- 
sessors of  the  primeval  wilderness  of  America,  and  of  all  the  aborig- 
inal races  the  Indians*  appear  as  at  once  the  most  picturesque  and 
the  most  peculiar. 

The  life  of  the  red  man  was  one  of  contrasts,  his  character  one 
of  singular  complexity.  Cruelty  towards  his  foe  was  combined  with 
stoical  indifference   to   torture   or   pain   when   his   own  turn  came. 

*So  called  from  the  belief  of  Columbus  that  the   nativ'es  of  San  Salvador  were  people  akin  to  those  of  th«  EmI 

Indies. 

43 


44  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

Treachery  in  war  was  a  matter  of  course,  yet  his  faithfulness  to 
friends  was  a  quaHty  whose  strength  even  a  Christian  civiHzation 
might  find  reasons  to  emulate.  His  personal  pride  was  at  times  so 
great  as  to  become  an  insane  egotism,  yet  at  other  moments  his 
humility  stooped  to  the  lowest  depths  of  self-abasement.  His  self- 
restraint  rose  to  the  heights  of  an  almost  heroic  self-repression  and 
then  disappeared  at  sudden  intervals  in  bursts  of  unbridled  and 
utterly  savage  rage. 

He  was  at  once  cold  and  hard  and  unrelenting  in  action  and 
passionate  and  revengeful  in  disposition.  He  was  ignorant  and  super- 
stitious by  nature  in  an  extreme  degree,  yet  keen  and  quick  of  thought 
beyond  modern  parallel.  He  treated  his  women  as  do  all  savage  peo- 
ples, and  considered  himself  far  superior  to  the  necessities  of  labour 
or  servitude.  For  him  were  reserved  the  lordly  occupations  of  the 
chase,  the  spectacular  glories  of  war,  the  physical  victories  of  self-tor- 
ture in  youthful  days  and  of  privations  in  the  wilderness,  or  upon  the 
warpath,  in  the  days  of  manhood.  Yet  he  was  moral  in  the  highest 
degree  and  was  never  guilty  of  those  weaker  and  meaner  vices  which 
stamped  and  destroyed  the  character  of  the  ancient  Roman  and  have 
left  their  deep  impress  upon  modern  France  and  the  greater  cities  of  our 
own  civilization. 

SLEEPLESS    SUSPICION    OF    OTHERS 

Love  of  liberty  in  its  wild  primeval  form  the  Indian  possessed,  to  an 
extent  which  made  him  contemptuous  of  all  arbitrary  rule  or  personal 
control,  and  affected  not  a  little  his  relation  to  the  incoming  tide  of 
white  men.  Sleepless  suspicion  of  others  formed  a  natural  part  of  his 
surroundings  of  war  and  treachery  and  solitude.  Like  the  Italian  he 
preferred  to  send  a  secret  blow  or  despatch  the  shaft  of  an  ambushed 
arrow,  to  open  fighting  or  public  revenge  ;  while  the  triumph  of  hold- 
ing an  enemy's  scalp  at  his  belt  was  to  him  what  the  golden  spurs  of 
knighthood  have  been  to  many  a  Christian  warrior  of  old,  or   the 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  45 

thanks  of  Parliament  and  honours  from  the  Crown  are  to  the  British 
soldier  of  to-day.  Like  the  Spaniard  he  was  dark  and  sinister  in  his 
punishments  and  retaliations.  Like  nearly  all  savage  races  his  war- 
fare was  one  of  sudden  and  secret  surprise,  ruthless  and  ready  slaugh- 
ter. Like  the  nations  of  the  whites,  his  tribes  also  warred  continually 
against  each  other. 

Looking  back  now  upon  the  vast  panorama  of  forest  and  prairie, 
lake  and  river  over  which  the  Indian  wandered  upon  foot  or  glided 
in  his  birch-bark  canoe ;  bearing  in  mind  the  stern  hardships  of  the 
winter  season  and  the  wild  happy  freedom  of  the  summer  time  ; 
remembering  the  absence  of  all  high  tradition,  spiritual  influence  or 
intellectual  knowledge  ;  one  cannot  but  be  impressed  by  the  character 
and  conditions  of  the  people  who  first  faced  the  fire-sticks  of  Cham- 
plain,  the  more  fatal  fire-water  of  the  French  trader,  and  the  fierce 
zeal  of  the  Jesuit  missionary.  A  native  of  the  wilds,  a  "product  of 
primeval  conditions,  the  Indian  believed  in  the  right  and  liberty  to 
roam  at  will  over  his  wide  realm  of  wilderness  and  water.  Just  as 
nature  had  made  him  a  noble  animal,  with  instincts  which  at  times 
raised  him  to  a  high  level  of  character  and  achievement  ;  so,  also,  it 
filled  him  at  first  with  simple  admiration  of  the  stranger  who  came 
with  such  attractive  gifts,  such  wonderful  weapons  and  such  curious 
customs.  After  some  experience  of  the  white  man's  initial  follies  of 
policy  and  action,  the  instincts  of  nature,  however,  changed  his  confi- 
dence into  permanent  distrust — and  this  in  the  case  of  the  American 
savage  meant  a  more  or  less  sleepless  hostility. 

When  the  earlier  discoverers  and  explorers  found  their  way  into 
the  wilds  of  Canada  they  came  into  contact  and  then  collision  with 
various  Indian  tribes  or  nations.  The  great  family  of  the  Algon- 
quins  extended  right  up  through  the  middle  of  the  continent  and  con- 
stituted the  central  race  of  the  French  possessions — reaching  also  in 
scattered  masses  from  the  Atlantic  to  Lake  Winnipeg  and  from  the 


46  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

Carolinas  to  Hudson's  Bay.  These  were  the  Indians  whom  Cartier 
encountered  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  Penn  in  the  forests  of 
the  Keystone  State,  Raleigh  upon  the  coast  of  Virginia,  and  Jesuits 
and  fur-traders  in  the  Valley  of  the  Ohio  and  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Superior. 

Of  these  people  were  the  Delawares  and  the  Shawnees.  The 
latter  were  a  strange,  wandering  tribe  whose  location  it  is  difficult  to 
fix,  but  who  are  known  to  have  more  than  once  come  into  conflict 
with  the  French.  They  eventually  settled  on  Canadian  soil  and  in  a 
later  century  played  a  brief,  but  important  part,  under  the  great 
Tecumseh.  The  former  were  at  one  time  conquered  by  the  more 
famous  Iroquois  and  compelled  to  bear  the  opprobrious  Indian  name 
of  women ;  but  in  one  of  the  French  and  English  wars  they  recovered  at 
once  their  courage  and  their  reputation.  Other  branches  dwelt  along 
the  Canadian  shores  of  the  Atlantic  and  north  and  east  of  Lakes  Michi- 
gan and  Huron.  These  latter  tribes  included  the  Ojibbiways,  Potta- 
watamies  and  Ottawas,  and  at  one  time  formed  a  loose  and  fluctuat- 
ing alliance  for  the  purpose  of  opposing  the  course  of  Iroquois  con- 
quest. In  this  region  also  were  the  Sacs,  the  Foxes  and  other  smaller 
divisions  of  the  Algonquin  race.  The  Nova  Scotian  off-shoots  have 
since  been  called  Mic-macs,  those  of  western  New  Brunswick  were 
named  Etchemins,  while  the  Montagnais  of  Quebec  and  the  Nipis- 
sings  of  the  far  North  shared  the  same  ancestral  tree. 

THE    IROQUOIS    INDIANS 

But  the  great  race  of  American  history  was  the  Iroquois  which 
stretched  across  what  afterwards  became  known  as  the  State  of  New 
York  and  made  for  itself  a  name  of  terror  upon  the  shores  of  the 
Great  Lakes  and  far  down  the  Atlantic  coast.  The  Iroquois  com- 
prised in  themselves  both  the  best  and  the  worst  traits  of  savage 
nature  as  developed  by  the  solitudes  of  North  America.  Intense  in 
their   pride,    lustful    in    their   desire   for  conquest,  savage    in    their 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  4^ 

cruelties,  they  were  also  able  in  organizing  power,  strong  in  a  sort  of 
barbaric  intellectual  strength,  constant  alike  in  friendship  and  hatred, 
energetic  beyond  all  comparison.  Traditions  which  have  a  force 
almost  equal  to  historic  fact  record  the  birth  of  their  power  in  the 
fifteenth  century  under  the  leadership,  and  by  the  statecraft,  of  a  chief 
named  Hiawatha.  >  1 

He  it  was,  who — according  to  the  translation  of  Indian  wampum 
records  by  the  late  Dr.  Horatio  Hale — conceived  the  plan  of  a 
vast  native  confederation  which  should  turn  the  mind  of  the  Indian 
from  fighting  to  the  paths  of  peace  and  contentment.  He  it  was,  who 
devised  the  famous  Iroquois  system  of  separate  nations  controlling 
their  own  local  affairs  but  lodging  general  interests  in  the  hands  of  a 
common  Council  of  all  the  nations,  capable  of  indefinite  expansion  in 
the  number  of  tribes  included  and  a  weapon,  therefore,  of  enormous 
power  in  the  hands  of  an  able  man.  Into  the  proposed  League 
Hiawatha  eventually  drew  the  Mohawks,  the  Oneidas,  the  Cayugas, 
the  Senecas  and  the  Onondagas.  Writing  toward  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  amid  influences  of  surrounding  hatred  and 
hostility  which  made  any  kind  of  fair  play  to  the  Indian  difficult,  the 
Hon.  Cadwallader  Colden — a  well  known  New  York  historian — says 
of  the  Iroquois  organization  and  polity  as  it  appeared  in  his  day,  that: 

"  Each  of  these  nations  is  an  absolute  republic  in  itself.  The  authority  of  the 
rulers  is  gained  by,  and  consists  wholly  in  the  opinion  the  rest  of  the  nation  have  of 
their  wisdom  and  integrity.  Honour  and  esteem  are  their  principal  rewards  as  shame 
and  being  despised  are  their  punishments.  Their  great  men,  both  sachems  and  cap- 
tains, are  generally  poorer  than  the  common  people  for  they  affect  to  give  away  and 
distribute  all  the  presents  and  plunder  they  get  in  their  treaties  or  in  war.  There  is 
not  a  man  in  the  Ministry  (Council)  of  the  Five  Nations  who  has  gained  his  office 
otherwise  than  by  merit,  and  there  is  not  the  least  salary,  or  any  sort  of  profit  annexed 
to  any  office  to  tempt  the  covetous  or  sordid. ' ' 

The  bitter  enemies,  and  eventual  victims,  of  the  Iroquois  were 
the  Huron  tribes  of  the  regions  bordering  on  Georgian  Bay  and  in 


48.  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

the  vicinity  of  Lake  Simcoe.  They  were  variously  recorded  in  his- 
tory or  tradition  as  numbering  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand  souls  and 
were  certainly  of  a  higher  type  than  other  savage  races  of  their  time. 
In  many  respects  the  Huron  and  Iroquois  were  alike  and  in  fact  were 
related  in  the  tribal  sense.  The  nature  of  their  dwelling-houses,  their 
stockaded  villages  and  cultivated  lands,  their  habits  of  permanent  set- 
tlement, were  very  similar ;  as  were  many  of  their  manners,  customs 
and  superstitions.  From  1609,  for  nearly  eighty  years,  they  remained 
deadly  rivals  and  then  the  weaker  disappeared  from  view.  Mean- 
while, however,  many  pages  of  history  had  to  be  written  in  deeds  of 
struggle  and  slaughter  before  that  time  came,  although  the  steady 
progress  of  the  Iroquois  is  always  noticeable. 

The  Neutral  Nation,  living  along  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Erie 
and  striving  for  a  while  to  remain  friends  with  both  the  rival  tribes  ; 
the  Andastes,  dwelling  in  fortified  villages  in  the  far  valley  of  the 
Susquehanna  ;  the  Eries,  living  in  the  vicinity  of  the  lake  which 
bears  their  name ;  were  all  of  kin  to  the  Iroquois  and  were  all  con- 
quered and  practically  destroyed  by  that  ambitious  federation  of  sav- 
ages. Then  came  the  conquest  of  the  Delawares,  or  Lenapes,  and 
the  expulsion  of  the  Ottawas  from  the  vicinity  of  the  great  river 
which  now  runs  past  the  capital  of  Canada.  Fortunately  for  the 
future  of  the  white  people,  though  unfortunately  for  a  certain  bar- 
baric civilization  which  might  in  time  have  been  evolved,  the  Five 
Nations  had  forgotten  the  teachings  of  Hiawatha  and,  while  sensible 
of  the  benefits  which  came  from  their  own  union,  did  not  grasp  the 
ideal  which  might  have  extended  that  union  until  it  included  all  the 
Indian  tribes  and  evolved  a  force  which  might  have  swept  the  French 
into  the  St.  Lawrence.  A  glimmer  of  this  idea  was  apparent  in  the 
admission  of  the  Tuscaroras  when  final  success  had  become  impos- 
sible ;  a  despairing  perception  of  it  came  fifty  years  latter  to  a  natural 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  ^g 

genius  in  the  person  of  Pontiac  as  he  organized  the  league  of  Indian 
tribes  which  resulted  in  a  prolonged  and  bloody  struggle. 

As  it  was,  however,  the  Iroquois  in  their  fighting  strength  and 
influence  present  a  striking  picture  upon  the  page  of  history,  and  it 
was  well,  indeed,  that  their  constructive  force  did  not  equal  their 
destructive  power.  Yet  they  could  never  have  numbered  more  than 
four  thousand  warriors,  all  told.  Swift  and  silent  movement  from 
place  to  place,  perfect  familiarity  with  every  stick  and  stone,  every 
sign  and  symbol,  every  sense  and  sound  of  forest  life,  enabled  them 
to  use  their  small  numbers  with  a  weight  out  of  all  apparent  propor- 
tion. But  it  was  really  the  same  with  all  the  savage  races  of  North 
America,  though  in  differing  degrees.  Garneau,  in  his  History  of 
French  Canada,  estimates  the  Algonquin  population  when  the  French 
first  came  into  contact  with  them  at  90,000,  the  Hurons  and  Iroquois 
together  at  about  17,000,  the  Mobiles  of  the  far  south  at  30,000  and 
the  Cherokees  of  what  is  now  the  centre  of  the  United  States,  at 
12,000.  His  total  is  180,000  for  the  greater  part  of  the  continent, 
and,  in  view  of  the  privations  undergone  in  winter  time  and  the  con- 
stant conditions  of  warfare  involved,  it  is  probable  that  this  estimate 
is  fairly  correct.  The  statements  and  suppositions  of  travelers  such 
as  Cartier,  Jolliete,  Marquette,  De  la  Jonquiere,  and  others,  help  also 
to  indicate  the  probability  of  his  figures. 

THE    INDIANS    PAST    AND    PRESENT 

So  far  as  can  now  be  judged  the  original  Indian — the  aborigine 
of  pre-Cartier  days — was  not  naturally  inclined  to  hostility  toward  the 
new  comers  and  was,  in  fact,  more  disposed  to  hospitality.  He  had 
much  of  curiosity  in  his  character  as  well  as  of  superstition,  and  both 
qualities  might  have  been  utilized  in  the  direction  of  peace  and  edu- 
cative influences..  Hakluyt,  in  his  account  of  Cartier's  first  visit  to 
Hochelaga,  lays  great  stress  upon  the  bountiful  generosity  of  the 
natives.       Turnbull,   in   his  work   upon   Connecticut,  pays   them   an 


56  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

unusual  American  tribute  and  says  the  natives  practically  saved  the 
lives  of  the  first  settlers  by  their  generosity  in  supplying  corn  and 
other  food.  Similar  experiences  have  been  recorded  by  others,  and 
the  response  which  history  stamps  upon  the  white  man  is  found  in 
such  kidnapping  episodes  as  have  already  been  described,  in  the 
aggressive  policy  of  Champlain,  in  the  harshness  of  the  New  England 
settlers,  in  the  cruelties  of  the  Spaniards  to  the  south,  in  the  inde- 
scribable horrors  of  the  Cortez  and  Pizarro  campaigns. 

The  character  of  the  Indian,  in  days  when  the  whole  wild  conti- 
nent  was   his,   differs   so   greatly  from    the   emasculated    product   of 
modern   civilization   that  no  judgment  of   former  conditions   can   be 
based  upon  present  appearances.     Though  the  matter  of  origin  has 
never  been  settled  there  were  similarities  which  stamped  the  savages 
of   America  as  possible   descendants  of  migrating  Tartars   from   the 
steppes  of  Central  Asia.     They  were,  as  a  rule,  tall  and  slender  and 
agile  in  form,  with  faces  bronzed  by  sun  and  wind  and  rain.     Their 
expression  was  stern  and  sombre,  seldom  or  never  marked  by  a  smile. 
Their  heads  had  high  cheek  bones,  small,  sunken  and  keenly  flashing 
eyes,  narrow  foreheads,  thick  lips,  somewhat  flat  noses  and  coarse  hair. 
The  senses  of  sight  and  sound  and  smell  and  feeling  were  developed  into 
a  sort  of  forest  instinct  which  seemed  almost  supernatural  to  the  early 
white  settlers  and  finds  such  vivid  expression  in  Fenimore  Cooper's  bril- 
liant romances.     Their  costume  of  deer-skin  and  moccasins,  their  neck- 
laces of  wampum  arid  shells,  their  ornaments  of  feathers,  claws  or  scalps, 
their  fondness  for  daubing  the  body  and  face  with  vermillion  paint, 
their  use  of  the  arrow,  the  tomahawk  and  the  scalping-knife,  soon 
became  terribly  familiar  to  the  ring  of  white  man  who,  century  by  cent- 
ury, slowly  drove  in  and  dispossessed  these  earlier  owners  of  the  soil 
— as  it  is  not  improbable  they  had  driven  the  still  more  ancient  race 
whose  mounds  and  buried   cities  and  curious  remains  still  excite  the 
wonder  of  the  archaeologist,  from  the  far  north  to  the  farthest  south. 


fitB  iNDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  51 

Hunting,  or  fishing,  was  the  occupation  of  these  Arabs  of 
the  American  wilderness,  fighting  their  continual  pastime.  Hence, 
permanent  dwelling-places  were  not  usual,  except  among  the  Hurons 
and  Iroquois,  and  their  life  was  one  of  ceaseless  wandering.  Their 
religion  was  always  of  a  peculiarly  mixed  and  doubtful  quality.  Cham- 
plain  has  left  on  record  the  statement  that  the  Mic-macs  of  Acadie 
had  neither  devotional  ideas  nor  superstitious  ceremonies.  Other 
tribes  upon  the  St.  Lawrence  assured  him  that  each  man  had  his  own 
god  whom  he  worshipped  in  secret  silence.  They  seem,  however,  to 
have  usually  worshipped  something,  whether  the  spirit  of  good,  the 
spirit  of  evil,  the  spirit  of  storm,  the  god  of  war,  the  spirit  of  the 
mountains,  or  a  spirit  of  the  waters. 

They  peopled  all  the  surrounding  air  with  friendly  or  hostile 
spirits  and  created  amongst  themselves  those  powerful  manipulators 
of  superstition — the  medicine  men — to  control  the  demons  of  storm 
and  famine  and  disease  and  death  which  a  vivid  imagination  had 
called  into  existence.  To  these  priests  of  a  peculiar  and  varied  faith 
they  also  confined  the  care  of  the  sick  and  there  is  little  doubt  that 
experience  and  necessity  had  evolved  many  a  simple  yet  effective 
remedy  by  the  time  the  white  man  appeared  on  the  scene.  Great 
faith  was  placed  in  dreams,  and  oratory  was  almost  as  important  a 
factor  in  success  as  bravery.  The  orations  that  have  come  down  to 
us  are  in  many  cases  models  of  conciseness,  brevity  and  forcefulness, 
not  unmixed  at  times  with  a  touch  of  pathos.  In  morals  the  Indian 
was  far  superior  to  most  other  savage  races.  He  had  one  wife  and, 
though  she  was  expected  to  do  most  of  the  work  and  to  bear  a  full 
share  in  hardship  and  suffering,  he  did  not  wantonly  ill-treat  her  and 
was  usually  faithful  to  her  as  she  was  to  him.  With  the  appearance 
of  the  white  settlers  this  latter  condition  unfortunately  changed, 
though,  in  all  the  wars  which  followed,  the  captured  white  woman 
was   safe   from   anything  worse   than    the    scalping-knife.       Nor,  in 


52 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 


any  instances  of  captivity  recorded,  do  women  and  children  appear 
to  have  been  subject  to  torture  at  the  hands  of  their  captors. 

The  customs  and  character  of  the  American  aborigine  turned, 
mainly,  however,  upon  war.  A  struggle  between  two  rival  tribes  or 
nations  could  be  brought  on  by  the  most  trivial  cause,  or  by  almost 
any  ambitious  or  relentless  individual.  When  determined  upon,  it 
became  the  source  of  almost  uncontrollable  joy,  of  wild  dances,  of 
eloquent  harangues,  of  multitudinous  prayers  and  sacrifices,  of  feasts 
and  endless  bravado  and  boasting.  Then  followed  a  period  of 
absolute  silence  and  secret  preparation,  departure  in  the  night-time 
and  a  long,  patient  waiting  by  squaws  and  old  braves  and  young  boys, 
for  the  return.  Perhaps  the  expedition  never  came  back,  but  if  it 
did  so,  with  scalps  and  prisoners,  the  welcoming  din  of  shouts  and 
shrieks  and  tom-toms  presented  a  perfect  pandemonium  of  sound. 
Then  followed  the  frightful  torture  of  the  captives,  controlled  some- 
what by  degree  or  rank,  but  always  borne  with  a  stoical  endurance 
and  pride.  Such  were  the  savages  whom  Champlain  encountered 
and  the  French  fought  during  over  a  hundred  years  of  intermittent 
warfare. 

Such,  also,  were  the  savages  who,  in  modified  or  varied  charac- 
teristics, extended  from  Lake  Superior  through  the  far  west  and 
north  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  about  whom  much  less  is  known. 
They  were  great  hunters  and  in  time  became  most  expert  horsemen. 
The  Dacotahs,  or  Sioux,  were  a  nation  of  allies,  not  unlike  the 
Iroquois  in  many  respects,  and  covering  the  southern  region  of  Mani- 
toba and  Assiniboia.  With  them  and  around  them  were  the  Crees 
and  Assiniboines,  while  to  the  north  were  the  Chippewayans  and 
around  Hudson's  Bay  and  the  northern  lakes  were  scattered  the 
Chippewas.  With  the  exception  of  the  Sioux  these  tribes  were  not 
apparently  as  war-like  as  those  in  the  more  central  part  of  the  conti- 
nent and,  when  settlement  came,  they  showed  a  much  more  docile 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  53 

disposition,  mixing  in  years  to  come  with  the  hunters  and  trappers  to 
an  extent  which  is  fully  illustrated  by  the  Half-breed  population  of  1870 
and  1900.  In  British  Columbia  and  the  far  north  the  Indians  were 
a  decidedly  inferior  race  to  those  of  other  parts  of  the  continent — a 
condition  probably  due  to  the  milder  climate  and  to  the  lack  of 
necessity  for  severe  exertion  in  order  to  obtain  food.  Under  pioneer 
white  auspites  they  became  greatly  degraded  though  subject,  in  later 
days,  to  Christianizing  influences.  The  Flatheads,  the  Haidas,  the 
Mitkas,  and  the  now  almost  extinct  Chinooks,  comprised  the  chief 
divisions  and  the  most  of  these  were  akin  to  the  Chippewayans  of 
the  plains  of  the  east. 

THE    IROQUOIS    AND    THE    FRENCH 

Meanwhile,  the  French  settlers  scattered  along  the  banks  of  the 
St.  Lawrence,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  knew  nothing  of  these  far 
away  tribes  who  hunted  the  buffalo  on  the  boundless  prairies,  or 
erected  their  tepees  upon  the  banks  of  some  great  salmon  stream  on 
the  Pacific  slope  of  the  unknown  Rockies.  The  Frenchmen  had 
quite  enough  to  face  in  the  savages  more  immediately  surrounding 
them  and  the  deeds  of  heroism,  on  both  sides  of  the  desultory  warfare 
which  followed  the  death  of  Champlain,  constitute  a  most  impressive 
picture.  Montreal  was  founded  in  1642  by  Le  Royer  de  la  Dauver- 
siere  and  Jean  Jacques  Olier,  and  was  governed  in  its  earlier  days  by 
the  iron  hand  and  courage  of  DeMaisonneuve.  It  formed  one  more 
object  of  attack  to  the  Iroquois  who  had,  of  late,  been  gaining 
strength  and  confidence  and  were  now  supplied  with  fire-arms  by  grace 
of  the  Dutch  traders  at  Fort  Orange.  The  annals  of  the  twenty  years 
which  followed  make  an  epic  poem  in  the  endurance,  the  courage,  the 
constancy,  of  the  little  white  population  of  Ville  Marie — as  Montreal 
was  called — and  of  the  other  fortified  settlements  of  New  France. 

Up  and  down  the  rivers  floated  the  crowded  canoes  of  a  merci^ 
less  enemy,  every  path  through  the  forest  seemed  to  be  a  ready  road 


54  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

to  Iroquois  capture  and  torture,  every  tree  in  the  wilderness  to  be  an 
Indian  warrior.  The  savages  lurked  in  the  most  unexpected  places; 
hung  silently  upon  the  outskirts  of  Ville  Marie  or  Quebec  ;  waited 
with  sleepless  patience  for  the  appearance  of  ^ome  straggling  white 
man  or  solitary  woman  from  the  convent  walls.  Only  the  strongest 
of  armed  parties  could  pass  east  or  west,  only  the  firmest  of  fortified 
walls  were  safe  when  the  haunting  war-whoop  of  the  enemy  was  heard. 
The  fur  trade  was  dead  and,  in  1649,  came  the  death  of  the  Huron 
nation,  the  destruction  of  the  Jesuit  missions,  and  the  greatest  day  of 
Iroquois  power.  Their  war  parties  swept  over  the  Huron  villages 
like  a  Dakotan  tornado  and  only  a  scattered  remnant  of  the  race 
lived  to  reach  the  walls  of  Quebec,  or  Ville  Marie,  and  to  tell  the  tale 
of  slaughtered  converts  and  martyred  missionaries. 

These  years  of  agony  came  to  a  climax  during  the  decade  follow- 
ing 1650.  The  stone  walls  of  the  convents  were  no  longer  a  sufficient 
protection  and  the  nuns  fled  to  the  cities  for  protection.  Around 
Quebec  and  Montreal  the  Indians  scalped  and  slaughtered  with 
apparent  immunity.  Little  or  no  help  came  from  France  and  then  a 
malignant  fever  suddenly  broke  out  amongst  the  people.  Not 
all  the  light-heartedness  of  the  French  race  could  bear  up  against  this 
combination  of  disasters,  this  cloud  of  destruction  which  hung  low 
over  the  land.  Those  who  could  fled  away  to  France,  those  who 
could  not  seemed  to  .loose  their  hold  upon  hope.  Strange  portents 
were  seen  in  the  skies.  D'Argenson,  the  Governor,  shrinking  from 
misery  around  him  which  he  was  unable  to  remedy,  demanded  his 
recall  and  at  last,  in  1660,  came  the  news  that  the  Iroquois  had 
determined  upon  one  general  and  concentrated  attack  which  should 
crush  the  white  man  and  make  the  power  of  the  great  Iroquois  nation 
finally  supreme.  Hundreds  gathered  below  Montreal,  hundreds  more 
gathered  upon  the  Ottawa,  and  news  came  that  the  greatest  war  party 
in  savage  history  was  about  to  sweep  down  upon  devoted  Ville  Marie. 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  5$ 

At  this  crisis  a  deed  was  performed  which  has  justly  been  called 
the  Thermopylse  of  Canada  and  which  merits  a  place  amongst  the 
finest  records  of  sacrificial  courage.  Daulac  des  Ormeoux,  a  young 
French  nobleman,  who  had  sought  the  new  world  for  adventure  and 
reputation  and  was  now  in  command  of  the  little  garrison  at  Ville 
Marie,  volunteered  to  lead  a  small  party  of  young  men  down  the 
Ottawa  and  to  break  the  force  of  the  Iroquois  wave  before  it  reached 
the  terrified  and  disheartened  defenders  of  the  town.  Calling  for 
volunteers,  he  obtained  the  aid  of  sixteen  youthful  heroes  and  after- 
wards of  some  friendly  Hurons — who,  however,  deserted  him  when 
the  critical  time  came. 

HEROISM    OF    DAULAC 

Making  their  wills,  receiving  the  sacrament  of  their  Church,  and 
the  mournful  farewells  which  can  be  better  imagined  than  described, 
the  gallant  little  band  passed  up  the  St.  Lawrence,  crossed  the  Lake 
of  the  Two  Mountains  and  took  up  their  station  in  an  abandoned  enclo- 
sure formed  of  tree  trunks  by  some  Algonquin  war-party  of  a  preceding 
year.  Here  they  made  their  stand — seventeen  white  men,  one  Algon- 
quin chief  and  five  gallant  Hurons — and  here,  for  days,  they  defended 
themselves  against  hundreds  of  picked  Iroquois  warriors  who  stormed 
around  their  feeble  shelter  without  intermission  and  with  every 
device  of  experienced  forest  warfare.  Exhausted  with  fatigue,  fam- 
ished for  food  and  sleep,  wounded  and  gasping  and  dying,  the  little 
band  fought  on.  Slowly  their  numbers  diminished  but  steadily  also 
the  dead  bodies  of  the  enemy  piled  up  outside  the  palisades  until 
the  walls  of  wooden  stakes  had  almost  ceased  to  be  a  shelter. 
Then,  at  last,  when  all  the  defenders  were  dead  but  five,  and  they 
helpless  from  innumerable  wounds,  the  greatly  re-inforced  army  of 
the  enemy  won  admission  to  the  enclosure.  Four  of  the  surviving 
heroes  died  at  once ;  only  one  was  found  sufficiently  alive  to  make 
torture  worth  the  while. 


56  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

The  lesson  was  enough.  To  the  bravery  of  the  Iroquois  nothing 
appealed  so  greatly  as  courage  and  such  courage  as  this  revived  all 
their  old-time  respect  for  the  white  man— a  feeling  which  had 
diminished  in  proportion  as  the  rule  of  religious  Orders  had  prevented 
the  expression  of  French  war-like  spirit  and  the  absence  of  French 
soldiers  had  prevented  aggressive  action.  If  seventeen  Frenchmen, 
they  argued,  could  keep  700  picked  warriors  at  bay  for  days  and  kill 
many  of  their  best  men,  what  would  the  population  of  Ville  Marie  not 
be  able  to  do  ?  The  great  expedition  withdrew  to  its  lodges  and  for 
a  time  there  was  rest  in  the  worn  and  wearied  settlements.  Six  years 
later,  in  the  winter  of  1666,  De  Courcelles,  the  bold  but  rash  noble- 
man who  now  governed  the  Colony,  undertook  to  lead  an  expedition 
to  the  banks  of  the  distant  Hudson  for  the  purpose  of  chastising  the 
Mohawks — perhaps  the  bravest  of  all  the  Five  Nations.  He  started 
out  with  300  men  and  200  Indian  allies.  He  returned  without  finding 
the  enemy,  after  a  journey  of  severe  privation  and  labour  and  with  the 
loss  of  sixty  men  from  Indians  who  had  hung  upon  his  rear.  In  the 
autumn  a  second  expedition  was  more  successful,  the  villages  of  the 
Mohawks  were  destroyed  and  their  stores  of  food  carried  away  or 
burned.  These  retaliatory  expeditions  were  not  only  creditable  to 
French  bravery  and  endurance  but,  owing  to  the  immense  regions 
traversed,  made  the  Iroquois  feel  an  increasing  respect  for  the  long 
arm  of  his  now  traditionary  enemy. 

During  the  next  eighty  years  the  history  of  the  Indians,  so  far 
as  New  France  is  concerned,  was  one  of  attack  and  counter-attack,  of 
plot  and  counter-plot.  Always  and  everywhere  the  Iroquois  had  been 
the  deadly  enemies"  of  the  Frenchmen,  and  now,  with  savage  though 
very  natural  sense,  they  became  also  the  more  and  more  frequent 
allies  of  the  English.  To  hold  the  balance  of  poAver  between  the  two 
great  rivals,  to  enable  the  one  to  kill  off  the  other,  and  to  contribute 
in  the  promotion  of  the  latter  process,  was  to  the  savage  statesmen  a 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARL  Y  CANADA  59 

most  congenial  task.     The  French  had  their  allies  also,  in  various 
Algonquin  tribes  and  in  a  scattered  remnant  of  the  Hurons.  .,„ 

And  so  the  struggle  went  on.  Governor  Denonville,  in  1687, 
with  two  or  three  thousand  troops  invaded  the  country  of  the  Senecas 
and  committed  whatever  ravages  were  possible.  His  expedition  was 
rendered  memorable  by  an  act  of  treachery  which  was  not  only  bad 
in  principle  and  character  but  disastrous  in  policy.  A  number  of 
chiefs  were  invited  to  a  conference  and  to  smoke  the  pipe  of  peace  at 
Fort  Frontenac — an  advanced  port  on  the  St.  Lawrence.  They 
came,  were  surprised,  captured  and  sent  to  France  to  meet  a  fate 
which  must  have  been  one  of  slow  and  sustained  agony  as  slaves  in 
the  King's  galleys.  The  villages  of  the  tribes  were  burned,  their 
cattle  and  swine  and  stores  of  corn  destroyed,  and  the  people  merci- 
lessly harried  until  scattered  far  and  wide  and  their  strength  shattered 
in  a  way  from  which  they  never  recovered. 

It  was  a  military  triumph,  but  the  result  was  an  instant  combin- 
ation of  all  the  Iroquois  nations  in  a  swift  and  savage  onslaught  upon 
New  France.  In  small  detachments  they  glided  like  shadows  of 
revenge  upon  the  settlers,  and  settlements  and  smoking  ruins,  or  the 
remains  of  tortured  victims,  stamped  keen  memories  of  pain  over  a 
wide  area  of  the  Colony.  So  swift  and  sure  was  the  vengeance  of 
the  Indians,  so  unable  was  he  to  adequately  meet  it,  that  Denonville 
felt  impelled  to  sue  for  peace.  Negotiations  were  commenced  but 
the  peace  was  killed  by  one  of  the  most  clever  and  unscrupulous 
incidents  in  the  annals  of  this  savage  warfare.  Kondiaronk,  or  "  The 
Rat,"  was  a  chief  of  the  small  tribe  of  Hurons  at  distant  Michili- 
mackinac  which  had  helped  Denonville  in  his  Seneca  raid.  He 
knew  that  no  peace  was  possible  unless  his  tribal  remnant  were  given 
up  to  Iroquois  vengeance  through  the  removal  of  French  protection, 
and  he  determined  to  act  promptly  in  order  to  avert  such  a  possibility. 
Lying  in  wait  for  the   Iroquois  envoys,   as  they  were  on  the  way  to 


f»  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

Montreal  to  conclude  the  treaty,  Kondiaronk  fell  upon  them,  killed 
one  and  captured  the  rest — in  the  name  of  Denonville.  Then,  when 
told  that  they  were  envoys  on  a  peace  mission,  he  pretended  intense 
disgust  at  the  treachery  of  Denonville  and  sent  them  away  loaded 
with  gifts  and  filled  with  wrath  at  this  second  evidence  of  what  they 
believed  to  be  French  duplicity.  In  the  words  of  the  astute  Huron 
"  the  Peace  was  killed  "  indeed  and,  indirectly,  Denonville's  original 
treachery  had  met  a  just  and  fitting  reward. 

THE    LACHINE    MASSACRE 

Vengeance  to  the  Iroquois  mind  was  now  imperative  and  the 
chiefs  of  the  Five  Nations  resolved  it  should  be  a  memorable  one. 
Months  of  French  suspense  and  Indian  silence  followed  and  then  the 
blow  fell.  On  the  night  of  August  4th,  1689,  fifteen  hundred  savages 
swept  into  and  around  the  village  of  Lachine,  at  the  upper  end  of 
Montreal  Island,  and  the  wild  storm  which  nature  sent  at  the  same 
time  failed  to  silence  the  screeches  of  the  Indians  and  the  screams  of 
their  victims.  The  writer  of  to-day  has  to  draw  a  veil  over  the 
horrors,  the  tortures,  the  slaughter  of  that  night.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  the  hearts  of  the  French  soldiers  in  Montreal  were  turned  to 
water  in  their  breasts,  and  that  New  France  seemed  stricken  with  a 
helpless  horror.  Then,  just  in  time  for  the  revival  of  French  prestige 
and  the  safety  of  French  settlers  everywhere,  there  came  back  the 
greatest  of  early  French  Governors,  the  wise  and  gallant,  though 
merciless,  De  Frontenac. 

He  decided  to  strike  at  the  Iroquois  through  the  English. 
Three  expeditions  were  secretly  arranged  from  Quebec,  Three  Rivers, 
and  Montreal  and,  as  secretly,  they  marched  upon  Schenectady  in  New 
York,  Salmon  Falls  in  Maine  and  another  point.  Friendly  Indians 
were  largely  employed  in  these  successful  expeditions  and  Indian 
methods  of  slaughter  were  followed.  For  a  time  afterwards  the 
Iro(|uois  were  held  in  order  by  these  successes  against  their  English 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  6t 

allies  and  by  the  evidences  of  courage  and  statecraft  in  Frontenac 
which  they  had  been  quick  to  discover  and  appreciate  during  his  pre- 
ceding Government.  In  1692  occurred  one  of  those  incidents  which 
shed  a  ray  of  light  athwart  a  gloomy  record  of  bloodshed  and  bar- 
barism. It  was  a  bright  summer  day  at  the  little  Fort  of  Vercheres 
and  its  only  occupants  were  Madeleine,  the  Seigneur's  daugh'"er  (a  girl 
of  fourteen  years),  two  soldiers,  two  boys  and  some  women.  The 
time  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  peace  and  the  men  were  away  at 
work  in  the  fields.  Suddenly  a  large  party  of  Indians  appeared  on 
the  scene.  The  gates  were  shut  and  the  terrified  inmates  calmed  by 
the  little  maiden.  She  at  once  took  command,  cannon  were  shotted 
and  fired  by  her  orders,  and  the  tiny  garrison  placed  so  as  to  continue 
their  use  to  best  advantage.  For  a  week  the  heroine  of  Vercheres — 
as  history  justly  terms  her — held  the  place  with  increasing  vigilance 
against  repeated  Iroquois  attacks,  and  until  the  inmates  were  at  last 
saved  by  the  appearance  of  French  soldiers. 

The  year  after  this,  Frontenac  led  a  not  very  successful  expedi- 
tion against  the  Mohawks  and,  in  1696,  though  now  old  and  some- 
what feeble,  he  was  carried  in  an  arm-chair  through  the  vast  wilder- 
ness of  water  and  forest  at  the  head  of  twenty-two  hundred  men  to 
another  attack  on  this  redoubtable  tribe.  The  Iroquois  burned  their 
towns  and  some  were  burned  for  them,  while  much  food  was  destroyed 
and  famine  in  the  future  made  inevitable.  But  little  else  was  done 
except  the  capture  of  some  chiefs  who  were  taken  back  as  hostages. 
The  Iroquois  had  now  for  nearly  twenty  years  been  in  formal  alliance 
with  the  English  at  New  York,  and  under  the  protection  of  the  Eng- 
lish Government.  Year  by  year,  the  naturally  war-like  spirit  of  all 
the  tribes  had  been  fanned  by  the  European  rivals  until  their  merci- 
less disposition  and  indifference  to  death  had  flamed  up  in  the  massacre 
of  Lachine,  on  the  one  side,  and  that  of  Schenectady  on  the  other. 
Yet  they  were  cunning  enough  not  to  permit  the  absolute  destruction 


62  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

of  the  French.  They  were  shrewd  ^enough  to  know  that  if  the  Eng- 
lish were  entirely  triumphant  with,  or  without,  their  aid  the  result 
would  be  equally  dangerous  to  their  own  power.  In  1685,  during  La 
Barre's  incapable  rule,  and  as  a  result  of  his  foolish  strategy,  they  at 
one  time  had  the  French  colonies  at  the  mercy  of  a  united  attack. 
Yet  they  seem  to  have  deliberately  refrained.  Again,  during  the 
European  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession  the  English  and  Indian 
allies  appeared  once  more  to  have  the  game  in  their  hands  when  the 
Iroquois  held  back  at  a  vital  moment,  and  failure  followed. 

THE    ENGLISH    COLONISTS    AND    THE    INDIAN 

Thus  the  struggle  went  on  and  spread  its  complex  course  over 
the  greater  part  of  the  continent.  In  the  history  of  Canada  the 
Indians  continued  to  take  an  important  but  very  varied  part. up  to 
the  War  of  181 2.  From  the  days  of  Frontenac  they  fought  on 
one  side  or  the  other,  on  behalf  of  the  English  or  the  French. 
Broadly  speaking  the  Iroquois  stood  by  the  former  through  thick  and 
thin,  while  the  bulk  of  the  other  tribes  supported  the  authorities  at 
Quebec.  In  Washington's  expedition  against  Fort  Duquesne,  in 
Braddock's  defeat  and  in  Johnson's  attack  upon  Crown  Point,  in  the 
campaign  of  Montcalm  against  Fort  William  Henry,  they  took  an 
important  and  characteristic  part.  In  Acadie,  during  the  mutations 
of  French  and  English  struggle,  they  were  never  numerous  enough 
to  hold  any  considerable  place  as  combatants,  but  in  cutting  off 
isolated  settlers  from  time  to  time  were  quite  sufficiently  successful. 
During  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  Halifax  had  just 
been  founded  and  the  English  were  trying  to  conciliate  the  French 
inhabitants,  the  Mic-macs  of  Nova  Scotia — as  Acadie  was  now 
called — fell  largely  under  the  malignant  influence  of  a  priest  named 
Le  Loutre.  He  was  a  merciless  and  tireless  supporter  of  the  French 
regime  at  Quebec,  honest  with  the  flame  of  a  fierce  and  cruel  patriotism, 
but  devoid  of  any  real  spirit  of  Christianity  and  honour.     Under  his 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA  6} 

control  the  Mic-macs  became  a  veritable  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  Eng- 
lish, a  source  of  constant  outrage  and  murder.  Some  other  tribes 
stood  by  the  latter,  reprisals  naturally  followed  and,  for  years  before 
the  final  fall  of  Quebec,  the  shameful  spectacle  was  seen  of  Indians 
struggling  for  scalps  in  order  to  obtain  a  French  or  English  bounty. 

With  the  victory  of  Wolfe  came  cessation  in  the  strife  of  cen- 
turies between  the  European  rivals  but  with  it,  also,  came  a  last 
despairing  Indian  effort  to  hold  their  own  against  the  onward  sweep 
of  English  population  and  power.  Pontiac,  Chief  of  the  Ottawas, 
had  for  some  years  before  the  signing  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris  been 
consolidating  and  increasing  his  strength.  He  had  steadily  stretched 
his  influence  over  the  Ottigamies,  the  Huron  remnant  which  had  for 
half  a  century  been  slowly  growing  in  numbers,  the  Sacs,  Pottawat- 
tamies,  Ojibbiways,  Wyandottes  and  other  tribal  divisions  of  the 
Canadian  region.  He  had  spread  the  spell  of  his  personality  down 
the  centre  of  the  continent  to  the  far  frontiers  of  Virginia  and  over 
the  fiery  Delawares  and  Shawanees.  He  had  even  detached  the 
Senecas  from  their  traditional  and  close  alliance  with  the  Five 
Nations,  or  Iroquois.  His  subtlety  of  insight  enabled  him  to  see 
clearly  that,  with  the  final  success  of  the  English,  the  power  of  the 
Indian  had  practically  passed.  His  eloquence  and  force  of  character 
enabled  him  to  bind  the  tribes  together  in  a  proposed  onslaught  upon 
the  advancing  white  man. 

Circumstances  played  into  his  hands  and  he  was  able  to  point 
out  that  no  more  appeals  were  made  to  Indian  assistance  and  Indian 
pride  ;  that  no  more  gifts  were  bestowed  upon  their  people  or  courte- 
sies showered  upon  their  envoys.  Policy  no  longer  made  their  alliance 
necessary,  while  recollections  of  half  a  century  of  barbarous  warfare 
made  the  Colonial  attitude  one  of  contempt  and  natural  aversion. 
Hence  his  scheme  to  scourge  the  English  pale-faces  into  the  sea  before 
his  own  people  should  be  swept  away  into  the  unknown  west  by  the 


64  THE  INDIANS  OF  EARLY  CANADA 

increasing  numbers  of  their  enemy.  Encouraged  secretly  by  French 
fur-traders,  who  told  him  that  help  was  coming  from  France,  and  by 
New  Orleans'  merchants  who  felt  the  competition  of  the  English,  he 
laid  his  plans  and,  in  May  1763,  the  whole  western  frontier  was 
a  blaze  of  savage  warfare.  Detroit  was  closely  besieged,  after  the 
failure  of  an  attempt  to  surprise  it,  a  detachment  of  troops  from 
Niagara  was  cut  to  pieces,  Sandusky,  Michilimackinac  and  other 
places  were  taken  and  destroyed,  while  the  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  Virginia  flamed  with  the  light  '~i  burning  villages  and 
echoed  to  the  cries  of  slaughtered  settlers.  Campaigns  against  the 
Indians  followed  under  Colonels  Bouquet  and  Bradstreet  with  vary- 
ing success,  and  the  war  dragged  on  until  1766,  when  Sir  William 
Johnson  finally  forced  the  submission  of  Pontiac.  This  ended  the 
struggle,  and  a  year  later  the  really  great  leader  of  his  people  was 
killed  in  some  private  broil. 

THEYENDANEGEA    AND    TECUMSEH 

In  the  years  which  followed.  Sir  William   Johnson,   as    English 
Superintendent    of     Indian    Affairs    in    the     Colonies,    obtained   a 
a  vast  influence  over  the  savages  and  especially  over  the  Iroquois  of 
New  York.     When  the  Revolution  broke  out  he  espoused  the  Royal 
cause  and  faithfully  did  the  Indians  join  in  fighting  for  it  under  the 
leadership  of  Theyendanegea, — Captain  Joseph  Brant.     This  chief- 
tain was  another  leader  of  the  type  of  Pontiac,  but  without  his  sav- 
agery of   temperament,  and  with  some  of    the  trained   qualities  of 
civilization.     Able,  honourable  and   courageous,  he    rendered   great 
service  against  the  Continental  forces.     When  the  end  came  he  led 
the  bulk  of    the   Iroquois   Loyalists   from   their   historic  homes  and 
comfortable  farms  to  the  banks  of  the  Thames  in  Upper  Canada,  and 
there  they  were  supplied  with  land  grants  by  the  King,  and  settled 
down  to  a  life  which  was  unbroken  by  war  or  strife  until  the  days  of 
181 2.     Then,  once  more,  they  took  up  arms  under  Tecumseh,  and 


THE  INDIANS  OF  EARL  Y  CANADA  ^5 

revived  the  old  glories  of  their  race  without  the  cruelties  and  savage- 
ries which  had  cast  so  black  a  shadow  over  its  sombre  history. 

Both  in  the  years  of  the  Revolution  and  in  the  War  of  181 2  a 
few  Indians  fought  with  the  Americans  ;*  but  they  were  never  numer- 
ous despite  the  bounties  offered  by  Congress.  Their  aid  was  publicly 
sought  by  Montgomery  during  his  invasion  of  Canada,  and  Congress 
passed  a  Resolution  approving  the  project  to  raise  2000  Indians  for 
this  particular  service.  They  do  not  seem,  however,  to  have  worked 
well  with  the  Americans  at  any  time,  and  to  have,  indeed,  retained 
their  rancour  against  this  branch  of  the  palefaces  long  after  the 
Iroquois  had  buried  the  hatchet  and  discarded  their  hatred  against 
the  French. 

The  Indian  was  a  natural  monarchist,  a  born  believer  in  aristoc- 
racy, and  it  is  probable  that  the  English  system,  as  it  evolved  to  the 
north  of  the  Great  Lakes,  was  far  more  suited  to  his  tastes  and 
inclinations  than  the  democracy  of  the  new  Republic.  He  saw  and 
felt  the  forms  of  British  institutions,  liked  the  principle  of  loyalty  to 
a  great  King  or  Chief,  and  also  admired,  as  time  went  on,  the  strength 
of  British  love  for  law  and  order  and  for  justice  between  different 
races.  His  day  of  power  had  gone,  it  is  true,  but  he  all  the  more 
appreciated  kindness  and  just  treatment,  and,  during  the  century 
which  followed,  Canada  has  no  prouder  or  more  satisfactory  page  in 
her  history  than  the  treatment  of  her  Indian  wards  and  their  immu- 
nity from  strife  and  bloodshed  and  corrupt  government. 


*  S«e  WMhinfton's  A4ilr«ts  tQ  CoBfres*  on  April  19th,  1776. 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Jesuit  Missions  and  Pioneer  Christianity 

THE  extraordinary  army  of  men  who  belonged  in  successive 
centuries  to  the  Society  of  Jesus  possess  in  their  annals  of 
mingled  power  and  privation,  of  greatness  and  meanness,  of 
fanaticism  and  finesse,  no  more  interesting  record  than  that  embodied 
in  those  Jesuit  Relations  which  are  so  eloquently  descriptive  of  their 
prolonged  effort  to  evangelize  the  savages  of  the  one-time  Canadian 
wilderness. 

PIONEERS   OF    EMPIRE    IN    NEW    FRANCE 

Whatever  story  may  yet  leap  to  light  for  good  or  ill  in  the 
past  pages  of  this  great  Order,  nothing  but  honour  surrounds  the 
work  of  the  Jesuit  pioneers  in  British  America.  Armed  with  nothing 
but  the  crucifix  and  wrapped  in  a  mantle  of  faith  and  Christian 
enthusiasm  which  made  them  dare  everything  and  fear  neither  torture, 
nor  privation,  nor  death,  they  tramped  through  the  lonely  aisles  of 
the  forest,  wandered  amid  swamps  and  the  haunts  of  wild  beasts, 
lived  in  the  smoke-blackened  atmosphere  of  dirty  huts,  nursed  and 
prayed  with  the  ignorant  and  helpless  victims  of  contagious  disease, 
and  preached  to  threatening  tribes  controlled  by  the  ignorant 
"  Medicine  men "  who  saw  their  supremacy  menaced  by  these  new 
doctrines  of  peace  and  charity  and  good-will. 

During  the  seventeenth  century,  while  their  fellow  priests,  with 

varying  degrees  of  success  and  failure,  of  Christian  work  and  secular 

negotiation,  were  extending  the  power  of  the  Church  of    Rome  in 

India  and  the  Moluccas,  in  China  and  Japan,  in  Brazil  and  Paraguay, 

devoted  missionaries  of  that  remarkable  organization  were  winning 
66 


MARGUERITE  BOURGEOIS 


E         A   f 

p,    '''^^m 

p  ""^—.^i^i^™ 

, 

--.-^  1//^ 

V 

^-  ..-- 

M  1   1 

1 

■ 

? 

HHj^p 

F 

MAGDALEN  DE  LA  PELTRXE 


MGR.  JEAN  OCTAVE  PLESSIS 
Bishop  of  Quebec 


MGR.  FRANCOIS  DE  LAVAL 

First  Bishop  of  Quebec 


THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY  69 

over  to  Christianity  the  Huron  Indians  in  what  is  now  the  Province 
of  Ontario.  In  1626,  Jean  de  Brebeuf  founded  a  mission  on  the 
forest-clad  shores  of  the  Georgian  Bay.  In  1641  Fathers  Joguesand 
Raymbault  preached  to  great  Indian  audiences  beside  the  rapids  of 
the  Sault  Ste  Marie  as  that  little  river  rushes  to  connect  the  great 
waters  of  Superior  and  Huron.  Everywhere  throughout  a  still  wider 
region  of  forest  and  wilderness  these  and  other  pioneers  of  religion 
preached  and  suffered  and  struggled  with  the  forces  of  nature,  and  of 
native  barbarism,  or  died  for  the  faith  that  was  in  them. 

WONDERFUL    COURAGE    AND    FAITH 

With  breviary  and  crucifix  they  wandered  afar  from  even  the 
ultimately  converted  Huronsand  the  implacable  Iroquois.  From  the 
wave-beaten  shores  of  Nova  Scotia  to  the  prairies  of  the  unknown 
west,  from  the  region  of  Hudson's  Bay  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi, 
they  passed  in  a  succession  of  black-robed  figures.  Paddling  in  bark- 
canoes  upon  rivers  and  lakes  of  unexplored  size  and  character  ;  toiling 
over  XM^^'tA portages  or  through  forests  without  seeming  end  or  limit; 
sleeping  on  rocks  and  moss,  or  taking  refuge  from  the  bitter  cold  of 
winter  in  the  still  more  unpleasant  smoke  and  dirt  of  an  Indian 
wigwam  ;  dependent  for  subsistence  upon  the  scarce  quality  of  savage 
charity  or  the  acorns  and  nuts  and  wild  growth  of  the  forest ;  they 
persevered  in  their  mission  "  for  the  glory  of  God,"  for  the  advance- 
ment of  their  Order  and  of  New  France,  until,  as  Bancroft,  the 
American  historian,  puts  it,  "  not  a  cape  was  turned,  not  a  river  was 
entered  but  a  Jesuit  led  the  way." 

Meanwhile,  in  the  more  limited  sphere  within  which  rested  the 
wigwams  of  the  Hurons  and  around  which  beat  the  ever-present  rage 
of  their  inexorable  enemies,  the  Iroquois,  success  came  to  the 
missionaries  in  the  way  which  they  loved  best. 

What  mattered  it  to  them  in  the  preliminary  effort  to  tame  the 
Huron  nature,  or  in  the  later  conflicts  with  the  hereditary  foes  of  the 


TO  THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PtONEER  CHRISTIANITY 

tribe,  if  priest  after  priest  dropped  from  the  ranks  into  the  arms  of  a 
martyred  death  ?  Daniel,  Brebeuf,  Lallemant,  Gamier,  Garreau, 
Buteux,  Jogues  and  Chabanet,  laid  down  their  lives  after  suffering 
tortures  beside  the  reality  of  which  the  most  vivid  imagination  would 
pale.  Goupil,  Brule  and  Lalande  were  some  of  the  lay  labourers  who 
also  earned  the  crown  of  a  violent  death ;  while  the  sufferings  of 
Chatelaine,  Chaumont,  Couture  and  many  others,  would  make  a 
record  too  painful  for  summarized  treatment.  The  Jesuit  Relations, 
written  by  many  of  these  Jesuit  Fathers,  in  different  languages  and 
under  varied  conditions  of  suffering  to  the  authorities  in  Quebec,  or 
at  Rome,  present  a  picture  rarely  if  ever  equalled  in  the  annals  of 
privation  and  perseverance. 

The  tragic  story  of  Father  Jogues  is  one  of  intense  interest. 
Coming  from  Quebec  in  1642  with  supplies  for  the  mission,  he  and 
his  companions  were  captured  by  the  Iroquois  on  Lake  St.  Peter. 
The  gentle,  refined  and  cultured  priest  was  submitted  to  every 
indignity  and  torture  that  his  captors  could  think  of  while  they 
dragged  him  in  triumph  from  town  to  town.  His  companions  did  not 
survive  the  ordeal  of  suffering  or  the  fiery  stake  but,  eventually,  the 
most  delicate  of  them  all,  with  mangled  and  bleeding  body,  was 
allowed  to  escape  into  what  seemed  the  certain  death  of  the  wintry 
woods.  By  some  miracle  of  fortune  or  of  Providence  he  escaped  to 
the  Dutch  at  far-away  Fort  Orange  and  was  thence  sent  home  to 
France.  But,  despite  the  hero  worship  of  a  Court  and  memories  of 
untold  suffering,  he  took  the  first  vessel  in  the  spring  for  New  France 
and  this  time  actually  endeavoured  to  establish  a  mission  amongst  his 
Iroquois  torturers.  The  martyr's  death  came  to  him  in  1644. 
Almost  exactly  similar  was  the  devotion  and  self-sacrifice  of  Father 
Bressani,  an  Italian  Jesuit.  Captured  as  was  Jogues,  scarred, 
scourged,  mangled,  burned  and  otherwise  tortured,  he  lived  to  see 
hungry  dogs  feeding  off  his  naked  body,  and  to  write  the  words,  "  I 


THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRlSTTANITy  ft 

could  not  have  believed  that  a  man  was  so  hard  to  kill."*  To  the 
General  of  the  Order  in  Rome  to  whom  this  was  addressed  he  added 
the  statement  that  it  was  written  in  ink  made  of  gunpowder  and 
water,  and  was  soiled  because  he  had  only  one  finger  of  his  right 
hand  left  entire  and  could  not  prevent  the  blood  from  his  still  open 
wounds  staining  the  paper.  Yet  he  lived  to  be  rescued,  to  be  carried 
home  to  France,  and  to  again  return  to  the  scene  of  his  suffering  and 
sorrow. 

SUCCESS    WITH    THE    HURONS 

Such  a  spirit  compelled  success.  In  1634  Fathers  Brebeuf  and 
Davoust,  after  a  weary  and  painful  journey  of  nine  hundred  miles, 
with  limbs  scarred  by  rocks,  and  bodies  bitten  and  bruised  and  torn 
and  worn,  reached  the  Huron  settlements,  not  far  from  the  Lake 
Simcoe  of  to-day  and  established  the  mission  for  which  they  had  wil- 
lingly endured  so  much.  '*  Amid  it  all,"  wrote  Brebeuf,  "  my  soul 
enjoyed  a  sublime  contentment,  knowing  that  all  I  suffered  was  for 
God."  And  it  really  seemed  as  if  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  was  to  be 
the  seed  of  the  Church.  Gradually  the  Huron  tribes  became  con- 
verted and  the  altar  which  was  at  first,  and  for  long,  raised  in  the 
aisles  of  the  forest  began  to  find  a  place  within  the  palisades  of  the 
native  villages. 

The  story  of  this  success  is  one  full  of  tragic  incidents  crowned 
with  the  most  tragic  of  all  ends.  For  fifteen  years  Brebeuf  and 
Lallemant,  Daniel  and  other  devoted  priests,  laboured  without  ceas- 
ing to  convert  the  savages  amongst  villages  which  dotted  the  fertile 
region  between  Georgian  Bay  and  Lake  Simcoe  wherever  an  opening 
in  the  dense  forest  growth  allowed  a  settlement,  with  its  huts  and  pro- 
tective palisades,  to  be  placed.  The  priests  shared  every  hardship  of 
a  life  to  which  custom  and  tradition  had  inured  the  Indian,  without 
complaint  and  with  apparent  pleasure.   Despite  dislike  and  threats  and 

*  The  Rev.  Dr.  W.  H.  Withrow  in  Canada  :  An  Encyclopaedia  of  the  Country,  Volume  II.,  page  444. 


72  THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY 

insult  they  would  enter  the  dwellings  of  the  Huron  braves  and  admin- 
ister the  rite  of  baptism  to  infants  whom  they  thus  believed  to  be 
changed  "from  little  savages  to  little  angels."  Of  a  thousand  such 
ceremonies,  performed  in  1639,  it  is  stated  that  all  but  twenty  were 
done  in  immediate  danger  of  death.  Such  courage,  coupled  with 
sympathy  in  sickness,  tenderness  to  the  dying,  evident  love  for  the 
children,  care  for  the  wounded,  inevitably  had  its  effect  in  time. 
Slowly  converts  came  in,  gradually  superstitious  rites  were  discon- 
tinued, steadily  the  worn  cassock  and  wasted  form  of  the  missionary 
came  to  be  an  endurable  and  then  a  welcome  guest. 

The  influence  of  these  men  grew  so  great  as  the  years  passed 
slowly  on  as  to  seem  a  marvel  in  the  eyes  of  the  modern  observer. 
Savage  natures  were  actually  changed  so  as  to  be  unrecognizable. 
Human  tenderness  was  revived  and  lawless  passions  restrained ; 
Christian  decorations  and  devotions  took  the  place  of  wild  Pagan 
mummeries;  most  wonderful  of  all,  the  Huron  learned  to  pray  for 
his  bitter  and  hereditary  enemy,  the  Iroquois.  A  transformation 
such  as  this  seems  little  short  of  miraculous,  and  it  was  natural  that 
an  already  boundless  missionary  zeal  should  be  strengthened  by  it — 
if  that  were  possible.  Recruits  came  from  France  and  converted 
Indians  swelled  the  ranks  of  Christian  labour.  In  almost  every 
Huron  village  a  mission  was  established  and,  in  place  of  a  few  fearful, 
doubtful  converts  meeting  and  worshipping  in  the  shadow  of  the 
forest,  there  were  organized  services  held  and  even  religious  structures 
erected  at  St.  Michael,  St.  Joseph,  St.  Jean,  St.  Louis,  St.  Denys, 
St.  Antoine,  St.  Charles,  St.  Ignace,  Ste.  Therese,  Ste.  Marie  and 
many  another  place  called  after  some  Saint  or  old-world  shrine  of 
the  faith. 

The  last-named  was  perhaps  the  most  important  and  was  estab- 
lished, in  1640,  on  the  banks  of  a  small  stream  not  far  from  the  present 
town  of  Penetanguishone.     It  was  a  fort  as  well  as  a  mission  and 


THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY  n 

the  outline  of  the  masonry  and  palisaded  walls  may  still  be  seen  after 
the  lapse  of  two  centuries  and  a  half.  Within  these  defences  were  a 
church,  a  mission  residence,  a  kitchen,  and  a  refectory.  Immediately 
outside  of  them  were  a  large  building  for  Indian  guests,  an  hospital  for 
the  sick  and  a  cemetery  for  the  dead.  Agriculture  was  carefully  taught 
and  earnestly  encouraged,  while  the  Fathers  not  only  themselves  used 
spade  and  mattock,  but  raised  fowls,  swine  and  cattle.  Prosperity  came 
to  the  villages;  comfort  and  plentiful  supplies  of  food,  in  winter  as  well 
as  in  summer,  resulted  from  the  foresight  of  the  missionaries ;  the  ele- 
ments of  a  very  real  and  kindly  civilization  became  visible. 

Unfortunately,  however,  though  it  must  be  said  naturally,  the 
military  spirit  of  the  Hurons  was  undermined  in  this  process.  The 
need  of  food  no  longer  spurred  them  to  the  distant  hunt  and  possible 
conflict ;  the  lust  for  vengeance  no  longer  moved  them  to  practice 
cruelties  and  physical  austerities  which  developed  activity  and  deter- 
mination and  strength.  They  grew  averse  to  war,  afraid  of  the 
Iroquois,  anxious  for  peace  and,  therefore,  natural  and  easy  victims 
to  the  implacable  hate  of  an  enemy  who  knew  no  mercy  and  despised 
the  qualities  which  Christianity  aimed  to  cultivate.  They  were  still 
subject  to  desultory  raids  from  wandering  bands  of  the  enemy,  and 
many  were  the  scalps  taken  from  unwary  Hurons  during  this  decade 
of  development.  But  there  had  been  no  combined  onslaught  and,  up 
to  1648,  hope  without  any  real  confidence  was  the  prevailing  feeling 
amongst  the  villages.  In  that  year,  while  the  Iroquois  were  haunting 
the  shadow  of  every  tree  and  the  fortifications  of  every  white  settle- 
ment along  the  St.  Lawrence  in  search  of  victims,  a  party  of  Huron 
braves  from  St.  Joseph  descended  the  Ottawa  and  the  greater  river 
with  a  large  stock  of  furs  for  sale  to  the  French.  At  Three  Rivers 
they  were  attacked  but  beat  their  assailants  back. 

It  was,  however,  the  beginning  of  the  end.  An  Iroquois  band 
had  meanwhile  swept  up  the  country  to  St.  Joseph,  broken  down  the 

5 


74  THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY 

palisades,  killed  Father  Daniel  at  the  altar  of  his  church,  taken  700 
prisoners  and  left  the  little  town  a  smoking  ruin.  In  the  following 
year  the  mandate  went  forth  that  the  Huron  nation  was  to  be 
destroyed.  Twelve  hundred  warriors  entered  the  rich  and  populated 
country  and  left  it  a  desert.  The  villages  were  burned,  or  taken  by 
storm  and  then  destroyed.  Priests  and  people,  alike,  were  slaughtered 
or  taken  prisoners  and  preserved  for  a  worse  fate.  The  Jesuit 
Relations  record  a  measure  of  suffering  wreaked  upon  some  of  the 
Jesuit  Fathers  which  it  seems  impossible  for  men  to  have  endured. 
At  St.  Louis,  Brebeuf  and  Lallemant,  disdaining  to  fly,  stood  by  the 
warriors  of  the  settlement  and  were  eventually  captured.  Enraged, 
and  yet  admiring  their  courage,  the  savages  exhausted  every  resource 
of  experienced  ingenuity  to  procure  from  them  some  sign  of  suffering. 
Scalping,  pouring  boiling  oil  upon  their  heads,  tearing  off  the  nails 
from  their  hands,  lacerating  their  flesh,  cutting  the  living  bodies 
almost  to  pieces,  burning  them  with  red-hot  irons — all  were  useless  in 
face  of  a  firmness  and  faith  which  impelled  them  to  die  as  became  the 
creed  they  loved  when  in  presence  of  enemies  who,  above  all  things, 
admired  the  stoical  endurance  of  pain.  "We  cannot  hope  "  wrote 
Ragueneau  in  the  Relations,  of  Pere  Daniel,  his  brother  in  toil  and 
tribulation,  "  but  to  follow  him  in  the  burning  path  which  he  had 
trod,  but  we  will  gladly  suffer  for  the  glory  of  the  Master  whom  we 
serve." 

The  mission  at  Ste.  Marie  was  strong  enough  to  resist  the 
onslaught  of  the  foe  and  it  survived.  But,  alone  in  a  land  which  had 
become  a  desert,  with  the  scattered  remnant  of  its  flock  fleeing  in 
isolated  groups  over  the  country  from  Lake  Huron  to  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  Quebec,  it  was  of  little  service  and,  finally,  after 
moving  to  an  island  in  Georgian  Bay  where  the  Iroquois  followed 
and  famine  faced  the  mission,  the  last  centre  of  Christianity  in  this 
part  of  the  wilderness  was  compelled  to  also  seek    refuge   in   the 


THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY  75 

direction  of  Quebec.  Thus  closed  one  splendid  page  in  the  history 
of  the  Society  of  Jesus.  Another,  though  less  conspicuous  one,  was 
immediately  turned  over.  The  Jesuits  had  long  been  anxious  to 
found  a  mission  amongst  the  Iroquois  themselves.  They  believed 
that  doinor  so  would  be  a  service  to  the  State  as  well  as  to  the  Church 
and  that  they  might  be  able  in  time  to  ameliorate  and  soften  the 
fierceness  of  the  savage  character. 

A  few  years  after  the  extirpation  of  the  Hurons  permission  was 
given,  during  a  brief  period  of  peace,  and  Fathers  Le  Moyne,  Chau- 
mont  and  Dablon  established  a  mission  in  the  country  of  the 
Onondagas  and  went  to  work  with  a  thousand  knives  itching  for  their 
scalps  and  the  knowledge  that  every  moment  might  be  their  last. 
Finally,  they  discovered  the  threads  of  a  plot  for  their  destruction, 
the  simultaneous  rising  of  the  Five  Nations,  and  the  sweeping  of  the 
French  into  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  little  band  of  white  men  escaped 
by  a  clever  ruse  which  looked  to  the  Indians  like  a  miracle  ;  and  the 
most  courageous  attempt  of  the  devoted  priests  had  failed.  But, 
within  ten  years,  they  had  obtained  a  footing  and  the  black-robed 
figures  passed  to  and  fro  with  an  immunity  born  of  growing  respect 
and  of  increasing  attention  to  their  lessons.  In  various  other  and 
distant  directions  Jesuits,  Recollets  and  priests  from  the  Seminary  of 
Quebec  penetrated — often  where  the  most  daring  fur-trader  feared  to 
go.  North  of  Lake  Superior,  and  from  the  Illinois  to  Lake  Winnipeg, 
Jesuit  priests  carved  a  pathway  for  French  influence  and  Christian 
instruction.  At  Sault  Ste.  Marie  and  at  the  far  away  Michilimackinac 
they  established  missions  and,  everywhere,  they  carved  for  their  Order 
a  signal  name  and  fame.  Such  was  the  foundation  of  Roman 
Catholicism  in  Canada. 

Curiously  different,  however,  was  its  effect  upon  the  Indian 
savages  and  upon  the  French  settlers.  Diverse  indeed  were  the 
results  of  heroism  in  the  wilderness  and  attempted  government  in  the 


76  THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY 

Province.  One  influence  made  for  peace,  the  other  too  often  led  to 
discord.  Both,  however,  had  a  great  moulding  power  in  the  making 
of  the  country  amongst  either  its  savage  or  its  civilized  peoples.  Up 
to  1658  the  Jesuits  practically  controlled  the  spiritual  affairs  of  the 
Colony  and  their  labours  had,  of  course,  been  largely  of  a  missionary 
nature.  There  was  little  ecclesiastical  organization  and  no  hierarchy. , 
But,  in  the  year  named,  Francois  de  Laval  de  Montmorency,  Abbe 
de  Montigny,  in  France,  was  consecrated  Bishop  of  Petrea  and  Vicar- 
Apostolic  of  New  France. 

THREE    GREAT   ECCLESIASTICS 

From  the  following  year  until  1688,  and  from  1692  until  his 
death  in  1708,  this  militant,  labourious  and  devoted  Prelate  gave  his 
whole  energies,  his  entire  wealth  and  life  to  the  establishment  of 
his  Church  and  the  extension  of  her  influence.  His  high  birth  and 
considerable  means  were  sources  of  great  strength  in  those  days, 
when  added  to  the  prestige  of  ecclesiastical  position,  and  these  ele- 
ments of  power  Mgr.  de  Laval  used  with  all  the  force  of  a  somewhat 
over-bearing  spirit  and  a  tremendous  religious  zeal,  to  rule  the  Colony 
for  the  good  of  itself  and  the  Church. 

To  him  the  welfare  of  the  State  was  bound  up  in  the  progress 
of  the  Church,  and  it  was,  therefore,  natural  that  a  man  of  imperious 
character  in  the  position  of  the  Bishop  of  Quebec — a  See  to  which 
he  was  formally  appointed  in  1674,  and  which  covered  nearly  the 
whole  of  North  America — should  enter  into  conflict  at  times  with  the 
civil  power.  With  De  Frontenac,  who  was  a  singularly  strong' 
character  in  his  own  sphere,  one  of  these  contests  occurred  and 
resulted  in  the  aged  Bishop  going  to  France  in  person  and  winning 
the  King's  favour  for  his  unceasing  effort  to  suppress  the  liquor  traffic 
with  the  Indians.  Similar  differences  arose  in  connection  with  his 
policy  of  making  the  Sovereign  Council  subservient  to  him  rather  than 
to  the  Governor.     With  some  of  the  more  powerful  of  his  clergy 


THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY  79 

disputes  also  came  as  the  inevitable  result  of  his  dominant  and  domin- 
ating will.  Like  his  humbler  predecessors  in  the  Society  of  Jesus, 
neither  distance,  danger  nor  privation  had  any  terrors  for  him.  From 
the  missions  of  Acadie  to  the  far  valley  of  Lake  Champlain  and  the 
wild  regions  of  the  Upper  Lakes,  he  travelled  and  organized  and 
'inspired  his  priests  and  adherents  with  new  energy  and  enthusiasm. 
At  Quebec  he  founded  the  Grand  Seminary  in  1663  and  the  Minor 
Seminary  five  years  later,  and  from  those  institutions  there  soon 
flowed  a  fresh  stream  of  devoted  priests.  By  this  time  a  number  of 
strong  and  growing  religious  institutions  were  strengthening  the  cords 
of  the  Church  in  Montreal  and  Quebec.  They  included  the  Sul- 
picians  at  the  former  place,  the  Jesuits  and  Recollets  at  the  latter; 
the  Ursuline  Convent  in  Quebec,  which  had  braved  so  many  pioneer 
perils  under  charge  of  the  venerated  Md'lle  de  la  Peltric  and  Marie 
de  r  Incarnation  ;  the  Congregation  of  the  Ladies  of  Notre  Dame, 
at  Montreal  under  the  control  of  Marguerite  Bourgeois  ;  the  Hotel 
Dieu,  built  at  Quebec,  as  a  gift  from  the  Duchess  D'Aguillon  ,  and 
the  similar  institution  in  Montreal  created  by  Md'lle  de  la  Mance  and 
Madame  de  Bouillon.  These  institutions  under  the  Bishop's  fos- 
tering care,  or  through  the  intense  militant  spirit  of  the  heroic  women 
in  charge,  had  prospered  greatly  and  been  of  untold  service  to  the 
oft-times  weary,  sick  and  despairing  colonists. 

Such  in  brief  was  the  work  and  character  of  the  Father  of  his 
Church  in  New  France.  A  long  line  of  more  or  less  able  and  earnest 
men  succeeded  him.  Mgr.  Jean  Baptiste  de  St.  Vallier,  who  spent 
immense  sums  founding  and  helping  religious  institutions  ;  Mgr.  de 
Pontbriand,  who  established  the  Hospital  of  the  Grey  Nuns  in 
Montreal,  with  the  assistance  of  Mde.  d'Youville,  and  died  just  after 
seeing  the  smoking  ruins  of  his  Cathedral  in  Quebec  as  a  result  of 
the  siege  of  1759  I  Mgr.  Jean  Oliver  Briand,  who  had  to  face  the  new 
conditions  following  the  English  conquest  and  to  make  his  oi^ce  one 


8o  THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY 

of  diplomacy  and  racial  conciliation,  as  well  as  of  religious  oversight ; 
Mgr.  Joseph  Octave  Plessis,  the  greatest  of  French  Catholic  ecclesi- 
astics after  the  founder  of  the  Church  in  Canada,  and  the  most  loyal 
and  successful  of  administrators. 

He  understood  and  studied,  as  no  man  had  previously  done,  the 
causes  of  the  French  overthrow  in  Canada,  and  he  was  clear-headed 
enough  to  appreciate  the  freedom  of  development  accorded  under  the 
new  regime.  He  founded  colleges  and  schools,  and  took  a  place  in 
the  Legislative  Council  and  an  active  part  in  its  work,  visited  Eng- 
land and  Rome  in  1819,  and  finally  succeeded  in  establishing  Quebec 
as  a  sort  of  a  central  See  with  Suffragans  or  Vicars-Apostolic  at 
Kingston  in  Upper  Canada,  on  the  Red  River  in  the  far  North,  at 
Montreal,  and  in  Nova  Scotia.  He  died  in  1825,  after  nineteen  years 
of  an  administration  which  had  revived  the  fruits  of  Mgr.  de  Laval's 
labours,  and  had  extended  his  Church  in  an  organized  sense  over 
much  of  the  vast  region  originally  covered  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers. 

The  Church,  meanwhile,  did  not  prove  ungrateful  to  England  for 
the  favours  of  toleration  and  freedom  which  had  been  conferred  at 
the  Conquest.  In  1 775  Bishop  Briand  issued  a  Mandement  A^TiOwnzwi'g 
the  "pernicious  design  "  of  the  invaders  under  Montgomery  and 
Arnold,  praising  the  magnanimity  and  kindness  of  the  King  toward 
his  French  subjects,  and  urging  the  defence  of  homes  and  frontiers 
and  religious  interests  against  the  Continental  troops.  During  the 
troubles  preceding  the  War  of  181 2  Mgr,  Plessis  took  still  stronger 
ground  and,  in  a  long  and  eloquent  Mandement,  issued  on  September 
1 6th,  1807,  and  based  on  the  principle  of  "  Fear  God  and  honour  the 
King,"  he  urged  loyalty  to  Great  Britain  and  denounced  as  unworthy 
the  name  of  Catholic  or  Canadian  any  individual  who  was  not  ready 
to  take  up  arms  in  opposing  a  possible  American  invasion.  A  little 
later,  when  American  missionaries  began  to  stir  up  the  people  with 
promises  of  what  republican  liberty  would  do  for  them,  he  issued  a 


THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY  8i 

letter  of  concise  and  stringent  instructions  to  all  the  Cures  of  his 
Diocese,  regarding  the  necessity  of  inculcating  loyalty.  And,  in  the 
result,  the  influence  and  power  of  the  Church  was  very  plainly  shown 
in  1775  and  1812. 

POWER    AND    PROGRESS 

Meantime,  in  the  part  of  Canada  now  called  Ontario,  and  which 
had  been  watered  by  the  blood  of  the  Jesuits  in  the  Huron  Missions, 
French  settlements  had  gradually  appeared  and,  toward  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  a  number  of  Scotch  and  Loyalist  colonists. 
At  Sandwich,  not  far  from  the  future  city  of  Detroit,  a  number  of  the 
French  had  settled  at  the  time  of  the  Conquest  and  to  the  banks  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  in  the  County  of  Glengarry,  there  came  forty  years 
later  a  number  of  Catholic  Highlanders.  In  1803  ^^^^y  were  joined 
by  Alexander  Macdonell,  the  Father  of  the  Church  in  Upper  Canada. 
Like  his  prototype,  Mgr.  de  Laval,  and  his  colleague  Mgr.  Edmund 
Burke,  who  went  to  Nova  Scotia  after  a  brief  stay  at  Sandwich, 
Father  Macdonell  feared  neither  pain,  nor  privation,  nor  labour,  in  the 
missionary  work  of  the  Church.  Consecrated  Bishop  of  Upper  Canada 
in  1820  he  lived  for  nineteen  years  to  preside  over  the  progress  of  the 
Church  in  that  Province  as  he  had  already  done  in  strenuous  and 
unselfish  fashion  over  its  birth  and  early  years.  Writing  in  1836  to  Sir 
Francis  Bond  Head,  Governor  of  the  Colony,  he  pointed  with  pride  to 
the  erection  during  his  pioneer  episcopate  of  thirty-three  churches  and 
chapels,  to  the  education  and  training — largely  at  his  own  expense — 
of  twenty-two  clergymen,  and  to  the  expenditure  of  ^13,000  of  his  own 
private  means,  as  well  as  the  collection  of  much  more  from  friends 
abroad.  The  following  extract  is  illustrative  of  these  early  conditions 
and  was  written  in  reply  to  attacks  made  upon  him  in  the  Assembly : 

"Upon  entering  my  pastoral  duties  I  had  the  whole  Province  in  charge,  and  was 
without  any  assistance  for  ten  years.  During  that  period  I  had  to  travel  over  the 
c'ountry  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Province  line  of  Lower  Canada,  carrying  the  sacred 


82  THE  JESUIT  MISSIONS  AND  PIONEER  CHRISTIANITY 

vestments  sometimes  on  my  back  and  sometimes  in  Indian  birch  canoes  ;  living  with 
savages  without  any  other  shelter  or  comfort  but  their  fires  and  their  furs  and  the 
branches  of  the  trees  afforded  ;  crossing  the  great  lakes  and  rivers,  and  even  descend- 
ing the  rapids  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  in  their  dangerous  and  wretched  craft.  Nor  were 
the  hardships  which  I  endured  among  the  settlers  and  immigrants  less  than  those  I  had 
to  encounter  among  the  savages  themselves,  in  their  miserable  shanties  exposed  on  all 
^des  to  the  weather  and  destitute  of  every  comfort. ' ' 

During  the  i6o  years  covered  by  the  arrival  of  Mgr.  de  Laval 
and  the  death  of  Bishop  Macdonell  in  1839,  n^uch  progress  had  been 
made  by  the  Church  of  Rome  elsewhere  in  the  country.  Far  away  in 
the  North-West,  wandering  priests  had  ministered  from  time  to  time 
to  the  Indians,  but  it  was  not  until  the  consecration  of  Father  N.  B. 
Provencher  in  181 8  as  a  Bishop  and  his  appearance  on  the  banks  of 
the  Red  River,  that  organized  work  commenced  there.  From  that 
time  on  steady  and  successful  missionary  labours  were  maintained, 
amid  the  most  severe  hardships,  intense  cold  and  every  form  of 
privation.  In  the  Maritime  Provinces,  or  "Acadie  the  Fair,"  the 
Jesuits  early  appeared  on  the  scene — the  first  to  arrive  being  the  Rev. 
Nicholas  Aubrey,  who  had  landed  fifty  years  before  Laval  arrived  at 
Quebec.  Fathers  Quentin  and  Du  Thet,  Biard  and  Masse  were  later 
pioneers.  Then  came  the  Recollets  and  the  Franciscan  Fathers  and, 
in  1676,  Father  Petit  became  the  first  Vicar-General  of  Acadie. 
Under  British  rule.  Father  Edmund  Burke,  who  had  been  labouring 
with  enthusiasm  for  a  number  of  years,  was  in  1818  made  a  Bishop 
and  Vicar-Apostolic  of  Nova  Scotia.  During  the  early  years  of  the 
century,  owing  to  large  accessions  of  Catholic  Scotchmen  to  this 
population,  the  Church  grew  rapidly  in  numbers  and  influence.  Thus 
the  seed  sown  by  the  Jesuits  in  the  soil  of  North  America  began  to 
fructify  after  they  had  passed  away  and  produced  in  the  course  of  a 
century  and  a  half  a  strong  Church,  planted  in  Quebec  amongst  a 
large  and  growing  population  and  elsewhere  placed  in  a  position 
suited  for  great  future  development. 


CHAPTER  IV 
The  Land  of  Evangeline 

LONGFELLOW  has  immortaHzed  an  occurrence  in  Canadian 
history,  which  was  notable  in  itself  and  which  will  always  live 
in  public  memory.  But  back  of  that  event  were  a  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  stirring  Acadian  annals — years  of  sorrow  and  suf- 
fering, of  struggle  and  success.  Before  Champlain  had  founded 
Quebec,  or  Henry  Hudson  discovered  the  great  northern  waters 
which  bear  his  name,  a  French  Huguenot  settlement  was  established 
on  an  island  in  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Croix  River,  as  it  rolls  down 
from  between  the  present  boundary  lines  of  Canada  and  the  United 
States.  In  this  pioneer  and  unsuccessful  effort  by  the  Sieur  de 
Monts  in  1604,  he  had  the  patronage  of  Henry  IV.  of  France;  and 
a  beginning  was  thus  made  to  the  prolonged  struggle  for  possession 
of  what  came  to  be  called  the  land  of  Acadie,  which  included  within 
its  bounds  the  present  Provinces  of  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick 
and  that  part  of  the  State  of  Maine  east  of  the  Kennebec  River. 

THE    LAND    OF    ACADIE 

It  was,  upon  the  whole,  a  goodly  region,  watered  by  beautiful 
rivers  and  innumerable  brooks,  covered  by  splendid  forests  and  pos- 
sessed of  a  soft  and  pleasant  summer  climate.  But  the  Canadian 
winter — that  cold,  stern  period  of  snow  and  ice,  to  which  the  French 
always  found  it  so  hard  to  accommodate  their  memories  of  the  mild 
weather  of  southern  Europe — was  sure  to  be  a  source  of  constant 
suffering ;  and  not  the  least  so  to  the  pioneer  band  of  settlers  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  Croix.  When  the  earliest  buds  and  birds  of  spring 
appeared,  De   Monts  and  Champlain  abandoned  a  situation  open  to 

83 


84  THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

all  the  frozen  blasts  of  the  ocean  and  the  river,  and  established  them- 
selves at  a  place  which  they  termed  Port  Royal  and  which,  within  more 
modern  days,  has  become  known  as  Annapolis.  At  the  head  of  the 
beautiful  Annapolis  Basin,  sheltered  from  the  sea  by  guardian  senti- 
nels of  rock  and  shielded  from  the  storms  of  land  by  wooded  hills,* 
the  site  of  the  new  settlement  was,  in  the  summer  season,  a  scene  of 
sunshine  and  loveliness,  in  winter  a  very  haven  of  rest  to  the  half- 
clothed,  inexperienced,  but  light-hearted  Frenchmen. 

SUFFERINGS    AND    HARDSHIPS    OF    EARLY    SETTLERS 

The  leaders  of  this  colonization  effort  stand  out  very  clearly 
upon  the  pages  of  Canadian  history.  Pierre  du  Guast,  Sieur  de 
Monts,  was  one  of  those  adventurous  figures  who  build  much  of 
romance  and  attractiveness  into  the  making  of  nations.  From  the 
French  King  he  had  obtained  a  grant  of  land  which  might  have  been 
made  to  cover  the  whole  region  from  Montreal  to  the  Philadelphia  of 
the  distant  future,  and  with  his  two  ships  and  a  crew  which  included 
thieves  and  gentlemen  in  about  equal  proportions,  the  light-hearted 
nobleman  of  a  brilliant  court  had  started  upon  his  task — one  in  which 
Cartier  and  De  Roberval  and  De  La  Roche  had  already  failed  to 
effect  any  practical  success  and  had  endured  much  of  privation  and 
suffering. 

With  him  were  Champlain — already  the  central  figure  of  St. 
Lawrence  explorations — and  Jean  de  Biencourt,  Baron  de  Poutrin- 
court.  The  latter  was  a  wealthy  and  energetic  nobleman  of  Picardy, 
whose  whole  heart  came  to  be  wrapped  up  in  the  success  of  the 
enterprise.  After  the  first  troubles  at  St.  Croix  and  the  later  settle- 
ment at  Port  Royal,  Poutrincourt  paid  a  visit  to  France,  in  which 
he  was  later  on  joined  by  De  Monts,  and  returned  during  the  spring 
of  1606,  with  "mechanics  and  labourers  for  the  infant  colony.  With 
him  was  the  merry,  shrewd  and  scholarly  L'Escarbot,  who  has  left 
behind  such  interesting  records  of  the  events  connected  with  these 


THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE  85 

settlements.  One  other  important  personage  concerned  in  early 
Acadian  colonization  was  Pontgrave,  a  rich  Breton  merchant  of  St. 
Malo,  who  had  already  shared  in  the  Champlain  expedition  up  the 
St.  Lawrence. 

The  years  that  immediately  followed  were  of  stirring  and  ever- 
changing  interest.  Port  Royal  became  the  centre  of  storm-clouds 
which  reached  in  shadowy  outline  from  Paris  to  London  and  back 
again  to  this  tiny  settlement  on  the  verge  of  a  vast  continent. 
Champlain,  meanwhile,  explored  and  surveyed  and  schemed,  while 
L'Escarbot  looked  after  the  planting  and  sowing  and  reaping.  De 
Monts  continued  in  Paris  to  try  and  counter  the  plots  of  enemies  and 
hold  the  rights  he  had  been  granted.  The  winter  of  1606-7  was  the 
famous  occasion  of  Champlain's  "  Order  of  a  Good  Time,"  when  the 
fifteen  leading  men  of  the  colony  met  in  Poutrincourt's  dining-hall 
and  revelled  each  day  for  some  hours  in  good  fellowship  and  good 
fare  and  the  good  cheer  of  a  wit  which  was  Parisian  in  its  character 
and  cleverness.  With  the  picturesque  group  of  gentlemen-adventurers 
sat  the  Sagamore  Memberton,  bearing  upon  his  shoulders  the  burden 
of  a  hundred  years,  the  responsibility  of  tribal  leadership  and  the 
reputation  of  sincere  friendship  for  the  whites. 

This  jolly  and  prosperous  season,  however,  was  the  calm  before 
the  storm,  and  in  the  spring-time  came  a  ship  from  St.  Malo  bearing, 
not  the  familiar  figure  of  De  Monts  with  new  resources  and  fresh 
settlers,  but  the  intelligence  that  his  enemies  had  triumphed  and  his 
charter  been  revoked.  There  was  nothing  for  it  but  to  pluck  up  the 
deepening  roots  of  settlement  and  return  to  the  motherland,  and  this 
Poutrincourt  did  with  a  sore  heart  and  a  steadfast  determination  to 
return  again.  He  took  up  the  mantle  of  interest  and  labour  which 
De  Monts  now  dropped  and,  while  Champlain  proceeded  to  write  his 
own  name  large  in  the  history  of  the  New  France  which  he  hoped  to 
establish  on  the  banks  of  the  St.   Lawrence,   Poutrincourt  continued 


86  THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

faithful  to  Port  Royal  and  in  1610  returned  with  new  settlers  and  a 
zealous  priest — Father  la  Fleche — who  soon  succeeded  in  converting 
the  friendly  Memberton  and  his  entire  tribe. 

In  the  following  year  came  another  crisis  and  the  death  of 
Henry  IV,  by  the  knife  of  Ravaillac,  brought  upon  the  European 
scene  the  towering  and  merciless  figure  of  Marie  de  Medicis  and 
upon  the  smaller  Acadian  arena  the  black-robed  and  stormy  figure  of 
the  Jesuit.  The  Society  of  Jesus  was  now  predominant  at  Paris  and 
it  proceeded  to  take  possession,  or  attempted  to  take  possession,  of 
the  souls  of  the  people  in  Acadie.  If  its  zealous  representatives  had 
shown  only  the  religious  courage  and  constancy  of  their  later 
colleagues  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes,  much  difficulty  might  have 
been  spared  the  struggling  colonists  and  much  of  the  strife  averted 
which  is  said  to  have  caused  Poutrincourt  to  once  cry  out  to  them  : 
"  Show  me  the  path  to  Heaven  and  I  will  show  you  yours  on  earth." 
The  founder  of  the  new  colony  was  now  merely  able  to  hold  his  little 
territory  around  Port  Royal  while  Madame  de  Guercheville,  a  lady  of 
the  French  Court  famed  for  both  virtue  and  beauty,  had  obtained  the 
rights  of  the  Huguenot  merchants  at  St.  Malo  and  transferred  them 
to  the  Jesuits  and  had  also  received  from  Louis  XIII.  a  grant  of  the 
whole  of  North  America  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to  Florida. 

RIVAL    COLONIES     AND    RACES 

But  to  have  was  not  to  hold,  as  was  soon  to  be  seen  at   Port 
Royal,   and  as  might  have  been  gathered  from  the    terms   of    any 
French  charter  which  included  the  English  settlements  of  Virginia 
and   Maine  within  its  scope.     The  Society  of  Jesus  was  now,  how- 
ever, nominally  in  control  of  the  continent,  through  its  fair  devotee 
and  as  far  as  the   fiat  of  a  French   King  could  avail.     In  Acadie, 
Father  la  Fleche  was  soon  supported  by  Fathers  Biard  and  Masse, 
and  their  labours   carried  the    banner  of    their    faith    far  and  wide 
amongst  the  Indians.     In  161 3,  Madame  de  Guercheville  sent  out  a 


THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE  89 

fresh  expedition  with  men  and  stores  and  accompanied  by  two  more 
Jesuit  priests — Quentin  and  Du  Thet — and  a  settlement  on  the  coast 
of  New  England  was  formed  at  a  place  which  was  named  St.  Laurent. 
The  action  was  taken  in  defiance  of,  or  indifference  to,  the  claims  of 
England  and  met  a  very  speedy  ending.  .  One  day  in  the  later  spring 
a  stoutly-armed  vessel  sailed  into  the  natural  harbour  which,  as  its 
Captain  had  just  learned  from  Indians,  sheltered  from  sight  of  the 
sea  Frenchmen  who  had  dared  to  intrude  upon  soil  claimed  for  the 
blood-red  flag  which  waved  at  his  mast-head.  The  settlement  was 
promptly  uprooted  by  the  commander  who,  in  the  future,  was  to 
become  wealthy  and  well-known  as  Sir  Samuel  Argall  and  always  and 
everywhere  as  a  bitter  enemy  of  the  French.  He  followed  up  this 
success  by  a  raid  upon  Port  Royal  which  he  found  defenceless,  Bien- 
court — the  gallant  son  of  the  adventurous  Poutrincourt — being  away 
from  his  command  in  an  expedition  against  the  Indians.  The  place 
was  pillaged  and  burned  to  the  ground  and  even  the  crops  in  the 
fields  were  destroyed.  Argall  returned  in  triumph  to  Virginia  and 
the  unhappy  French  colonists  struggled  through  the  ensuing  winter 
by  means  of  wild  roots  and  the  help  of  half-starved  and  friendly 
Indians.  Poutrincourt,  shortly  after  this  event,  died  a  soldier's  death  in 
France  and  his  son,  who  had  already  inherited  his  ability  and  energy, 
obtained  the  rank  of  Vice-Admiral  and  remained  in  Acadie  to  hunt,  fish, 
shoot,  trade,  and  guard  the  remnants  of  his  cherished  settlement. 
Ultimately,  he  rebuilt  Port  Royal  and  in  this  as  well  as  in  his  generally 
adventurous  life,  was  strongly  seconded  by  a  young  Huguenot  noble- 
man— Charles  de  la  Tour- -who  was  destined  to  take  an  important 
part  in  the  stern  game  of  war  and  colonization  which  followed. 

Meanwhile,  as  a  result  of  Argall's  raids,  Great  Britain  began  to 
press  the  claims  upon  the  soil  of  North  America  which  Cabot's 
discoveries  seemed  to  give.  By  right  of  settlement  the  greater  part 
of  the  Atlantic  coast  from  Acadie  downward  was  already  British;  by 


90  THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

right  of  discovery,  and  despite  a  record  of  colonization  and  explora- 
tion which  now  crowns  French  energy  and  enterprise  with  honour, 
claim  was  laid  to  the  whole  of  what  has  become  known  as  Canada  and 
was  for  nearly  a  century  called  British  America.  In  times  of  war 
between  France  and  England  this  claim  continued  to  be  aggressively 
presented  by  British  invasion  or  British  expeditions ;  in  times  of 
nominal  peace  it  was  too  often  urged  by  Colonial  invasion  and  New 
England  raids,  followed  or  preceded  by  French  expeditions  of  a 
similarly  lawless  character. 

In  1614,  King  James  I.  granted  to  a  Plymouth  Association  all 
the  lands  lying  between  the  45th  and  48th  parallels  and  called  the 
region  New  England.  There  was,  of  course,  a  New  France  already 
in  existence  and  a  New  Spain  was  now  taking  unto  itself  much  of  the 
southern  part  of  the  continent.  Sir  William  Alexander,  afterwards 
Earl  of  Sterling  and  Viscount  Canada,  a  man  of  letters,  and  a  patri- 
otic Scotchman,  resolved  that  there  should  also  be  a  New  Scotland. 
From  the  King  he  obtained,  in  162 1,  a  grant  of  the  whole  of  Acadie 
under  the  general  name  of  Nova  Scotia,  and  including  the  Maritime 
Provinces  of  the  present  day.  He  began  quietly  by  making  a  small 
settlement  and  then  sending  out  ships  yearly  with  trading  and  explor- 
ing parties.  The  younger  Poutrincourt  was  now  Commandant  of 
Acadie  in  the  name  of  the  French  King  and,  with  De  la  Tour,  presented 
to  the  thrifty  Scotchman  a  rather  difficult  nut  for  breaking  by  either 
the  weapons  of  diplomacy  or  war.  But  the  latter  was  a  man  of  re- 
source and  had  he  been  backed  up  by  the  weight  of  practical  assist- 
ance from  the  Crown,  as  well  as  of  its  nominal  patronage,  he  would 
have  eventually  built  up  a  strong  Scotch  dependency.  Charles  I. 
renewed  his  charter  in  1625  and  also  approved  an  undertaking  which 
has  been  since  criticized,  very  unfairly  and  ignorantly,  by  men  who 
know  nothing  of  the  spirit  of  that  age  and  judge  everything  by  the 
somewhat  mercenary  and  largely  democratic  spirit  of  the  present  time. 


THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE  9t 

An  Order  of  Knights-Baronets  of  Nova  Scotia  was  established 
by  which,  in  return  for  certain  substantial  contributions  to  the 
Colonization  fund  and  the  pledge  of  planting  actual  settlements  on 
the  lands  granted  by  the  Crown,  each  member  of  the  Order  was  to  be 
given  an  estate  of  eighteen  square  miles.  Many  a  title  has  been 
accorded  for  less  service  to  the  State,  present  or  prospective,  than  this 
and,  given  a  reasonably  fair  selection  of  the  gentleman  upon  whom  the 
honour  and  the  opportunity  were  conferred,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why 
abuse  and  sneers  should  be  levelled  at  the  scheme  and  its  originator. 
About  the  same  time  the  crafty  Richelieu  was  inaugurating  in  New 
France  the  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates  with  similar  objects 
in  view  though  with  natural  differences  in  detail.  Something  was 
done  in  carrying  out  the  plan  and  soon  a  number  of  estates  dotted 
the  English  maps  of  Nova  Scotia  which  would  hardly  be  found  in  a 
French  map  of  Acadie.  The  settlements  were  not  so  quick  in 
maturing,  but  a  certain  number  of  immigrants  did  come  out  despite 
the  fresh  war  which  soon  began  between  England  and  France. 

When  Admiral  Kirke  arrived  on  the  expedition  which  so 
triumphantly  terminated  in  the  temporary  capture  of  Quebec,  he  bore 
down  upon  battle-scarred  Port  Royal  and  declared  the  whole  country 
to  be  under  the  rule  and  government  of  Sir  William  Alexander's 
Company,  or  Order.  Poutrincourt,  the  younger,  had  died  some  years 
before  this  but  Charles  de  la  Tour  still  held  a  strong  position  at  Fort 
St.  Louis,  near  Cape  Sable.  Here,  in  1629,  he  shut  himself  up  and 
defied  the  English,  though  his  father,  Claude  de  la  Tour,  was 
captured  on  his  way  with  supplies  and  armament  for  Port  Royal  and 
was  carried  to  an  English  prison.  These  survivors  of  the  Huguenot 
aristocracy  of  the  old  world  are  very  picturesque  figures  in  the  early 
history  of  the  new  one.  The  elder  was  a  trader  by  profession  and 
perhaps  at  heart.  He  was  certainly  far  from  possessing  the  many 
patriotic  and  gallant  qualities  of  his  son.     To  the  English  Court  and 


92  THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

English  statecraft  he  was  felt,  however,  to  be  a  great  prize.  The 
power  of  the  family  in  Acadie  was  well-known,  though  it  was  forgotten, 
or  unknown,  that  the  greater  influence  settled  in  the  person  and 
around  the  character  of  its  younger  member. 

Claude  de  la  Tour  was  made  much  of  in  England,  feted  every- 
where, married  to  a  lady  of  the  Court,  made  a  Knight-Baronet  of 
Nova  Scotia,  granted  forty-five  hundred  square  miles  of  territory  on 
the  Atlantic  coast,  and  gradually  won  over  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
England  and  to  promise  the  support  of  his  son — who  was  included  in 
the  titles  and  grants.  But  he  had  undertaken  too  much  and  when,  in 
1630,  he  arrived  at  Port  Louis  with  British  ships  and  colonists  and 
the  assurance  of  support  to  his  plans,  he  was  repulsed  in  his  negotia- 
tions and  in  the  assault  which  followed  their  failure,  and  was  com- 
pelled to  withdraw  to  Port  Royal  with  his  settlers  and  the  wife  who 
had  been  led  to  expect  a  triumphant  entry  into  new  and  vast  posses- 
sions and  an  early  acquisition  of  territory  for  the  Crown  of  England. 
She  remained  faithful  to  her  husband,  however,  through  good  and  evil 
report,  through  the  sunshine  of  success  and  the  shadow  of  sorrow.  The 
latter  unfortunately  predominated  and  when,  two  years  after  this  time, 
peace  was  concluded  by  the  respective  Sovereigns  and  New  France  and 
Acadie  both  handed  back  to  France,  the  father  had  the  humiliation  of 
having  to  seek  refuge  with  his  son  and  to  find  himself  stripped  of  both 
his  reputation  and  his  resources.  Thence  he  fades  from  the  canvas  of  his- 
tory. Charles  de  la  Tour  had,  in  the  meantime,  won  high  credit  for  his 
refusal  of  English  approaches  and  in  1631  became  the  French  King's 
Lieutenant-General  in  Acadie  with  sufftcient  men  and  arms  and  supplies 
to  surround  the  position  with  something  more  than  an  empty  halo. 

Then  followed  the  despatch  of  Isaac  de  Razily,  a  relation  of 
Richelieu,  with  a  definite  mission  to  drive  the  Scotch  out  of  Acadie ; 
and  with  him  were  Nicholas  Denys,  destined  to  succeed  L'Escarbot 
as  a  picturesque  scribe,  and  D'Aubray  Charnisay,  a  French  nobleman 


THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE  $3 

of  ability  and  intense  ambition.  Various  minor  struggles  with  New 
England  ensued  in  which  success  generally  rested  with  the  French 
and  where  both  De  la  Tour  and  Charnisay  distinguished  themselves. 
De  Razily  died  in  1636  and  left  his  power  in  the  divided  hands  of  two 
antagonistic  and  ambitious  men.  De  la  Tour  retired  to  a  new  fortress 
which  he  had  built  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John  River,  and  for  five 
years  ruled,  practically,  over  the  Nova  Scotia  peninsula.  Charnisay 
remained  at  Port  Royal,  which  he  had  rebuilt  and  greatly  strengthened, 
and  maintained  authority  along  the  coast  of  the  New  Brunswick  and 
Maine  of  the  future,  from  Chignecto  to  Pemaquid. 

JEALOUSY    OF    GREAT    RIVALS 

Each  was  jealous  of  the  other's  power  and  plans  but,  while  De  la 
Tour  rested  in  proud  contempt  within  the  walls  of  his  fortress,  sur- 
rounded by  his  family  and  relatives,  his  soldiers,  Indians  and  steadily 
successful  fur-traders,  Charnisay  sought  the  seat  of  power  and  under- 
mined his  rival's  reputation  at  the  Court  of  France.  In  1641  he  was 
successful.  De  la  Tour  was  deprived  of  his  position  and  possessions 
and  ordered  to  France  under  arrest.  It  was  a  desperate  case.  To 
go  was  to  meet  ruin  at  the  hands  of  a  Cardinal  who  hated  the 
Huguenots  ;  to  stay  was  to  court  ruin  as  a  rebel.  But  in  the  latter 
case  De  la  Tour  knew  his  friends  would  stand  by  him,  and  his  fol- 
lowers fight  for  him  ;  while  chance  might  at  any  ttme  reverse  the  con- 
ditions prevalent  at  Paris.  He,  therefore,  stayed  and  his  defiance 
resulted  in  a  strife  which  filled  the  forests  and  coasts  of  Acadie  with 
the  sights  and  sounds  of  civil  war  during  a  number  of  years. 

It  was  the  war  of  a  hero,  and  the  fitting  wife  of  a  hero,  with  a  man 
whose  character  has  been  revealed  by  the  light  of  passing  years,  and 
of  history,  as  so  infamous  in  its  indifference  to  honour  and  integrity  as 
to  defy  the  powers  of  restrained  description.  The  real  qualities  of 
De  la  Tour  were  open  to  the  world,  and  had  obtained  the  respect  of 
all  who  knew  him.     As  so  often  happens  in  the  history  of  countries, 

6 


^  THE  LAND  dP  EVANGELINE 

he  was  the  one  man  who,  at  this  crisis,  might  have  made  Acadie  a  great 
and  prosperous  French  state.  But  he  was  denied  the  opportunity  by 
a  fate  that  has  ordained  other  ends  for  the  region  which  two  rivals 
were  then  struggling  with  such  varied  motives  to  possess  and  rule. 
Those  of  De  la  Tour  were  the  ambitions  of  a  patriot  combined  with 
much  of  the  prescience  of  a  statesman.  Those  of  Charnisay  were 
the  self-seeking  principles  of  a  trader  combined  with  the  unscrupulous 
personal  designs  of  a  Philippe  Egalite. 

The  conflict  began  by  Charnisay  attacking  Fort  La  Tour  at  the 
mouth  of  the  St.  John,  in  the  spring  of  1643,  and  being  repulsed  with 
considerable  loss.  It  continued  through  his  close  investment  of  the 
place  and  the  arrival  of  reinforcements  from  France  ;  and  was  marked 
by  the  escape  of  De  la  Tour  and  his  wife  to  Boston  through  the  close 
lines  of  the  enemy  and  by  their  return  in  triumph  with  five  ships  full 
of  strong  and  willing  men  from  Massachusetts.  It  ended,  for  the 
moment,  in  the  chagrin  and  amazement  of  Charnisay  and  his  hasty 
flight  to  Port  Royal.  The  result  should  have  been  a  permanent  one, 
with  Port  Royal  taken  and  Charnisay  captured.  But  the  New  Eng- 
landers  had  to  be  considered  and  De  la  Tour  found  that  they  were 
amply  content  with  the  booty  in  furs  which  they  had  gained  and  the 
terms  which  they  had  forced  him  to  yield.  Perhaps,  too,  their  thrifty 
patriotism  saw  possibilities  of  injury  to  France  and  benefit  to  them- 
selves in  not  too  suddenly  ending  the  war  of  the  rivals.  De  la  Tour, 
therefore,  set  himself  to  strengthen  his  defences  and  consolidate  his 
resources,  while  his  brave  wife — whose  conduct  during  the  hardships  of 
the  siege,  the  escape,and  the  journey  to  Boston  had  already  been  heroic 
— started  for  France  to  obtain  assistance  from  her  Huguenot  friends 
in  Rochelle.  Charnisay,  meanwhile,  departed  for  Paris,  where  he 
arranged  to  have  his  rival's  wife  arrested  for  treason.  She  escaped 
him,  however,  reached  England  in  safety  and  after  twelve  weary 
months  of  peril  and  adventure  arrived  home  at  Fort  La  Tour. 


THE  LAND  uF  EVANGELINE  95 

She  had  brought  some  help  back  with  her  and  her  husband  went 
to  Boston  to  get  more  with  the  intention  of  this  time  finishing  his  foe. 
Charnisay  heard  of  his  departure  and  with  cruisers  and  troops  at 
once  invested  the  fortress.  The  gallant  wife  did  everything  to  supply 
her  husband's  place  and,  perhaps,  she  more  than  filled  it.  Supplies 
ran  short  and  traitors  were  discovered.  Instead  of  being  hung  they 
were  mistakenly  driven  with  contempt  from  the  Fort  and  intelligence 
thus  afforded  Charnisay  as  to  the  state  of  the  garrison.  Fire  was 
opened  by  his  battleships,  but  it  was  replied  to  with  a  force  and  good- 
will which  destroyed  one  of  his  ships  and  drove  back  his  men  with 
heavy  loss.  For  two  months  the  heroic  garrison  and  the  gallant  lady 
defied  his  blockade  and  laughed,  apparently,  at  the  assault  which  he 
was  afraid  to  deliver.  De  la  Tour,  meanwhile,  had  returned  from 
Boston  and  lay  cruising  as  near  as  possible  to  the  scene  of  the  siege, 
but  his  single  ship  was  no  match  for  the  fleet  of  his  enemy.  One 
night,  in  the  month  of  April,  Charnisay  plucked  up  courage  to  once 
more  defy  the  chances  of  battle  with  this  woman  who  seemed  able 
to  resist  all  the  men  and  ships  he  could  bring  against  her.  During 
three  days  the  fresh  struggle  lasted,  while  every  rampart  was  attacked 
at  once  and  every  weak  spot  seemed  known  to  the  enemy.  But  the 
starving  garrison,  though  depleted  in  numbers  and  weakened  by 
privation,  seemed  inspired  with  the  courage  of  their  leader  and  held 
their  own  with  the  fortitude  of  men  who  knew  that  they  were  fight- 
ing against  fate,  but  that  they  were  doing  so  for  a  woman  who  was 
worthy  of  their  loyalty  and  the  sacrifice  of  their  lives. 

At  last  a  Swiss  mercenary  turned  traitor  and  threw  open  the 
gates.  Charnisay  entered  in  triumph,  but  none  knew  better  than  he 
that  victory  was  still  far  away.  Then  came  the  blackest  and  meanest 
deed  in  the  history  of  the  northern  part  of  the  continent.  Afraid  of 
this  woman,  afraid  of  being  again  repulsed  by  her  leadership  in  the 
prolonged  fight  which  must  still  follow,  Charnisay  asked  for  a  truce 


96  THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

and  offered  honourable  terms.  With  a  woman's  natural  desire  to 
save  her  brave  followers,  Madame  de  la  Tour  consented  and  the 
terms  of  capitulation  were  duly  drawn  up.  Then,  with  the  fortress 
in  his  hands  and  the  chatelaine  at  his  mercy,  this  mockery  of  a  man 
tore  up  the  document,  repudiated  his  obligations  and  his  honour,  and, 
placing  a  halter  around  the  neck  of  the  brave  woman  who  had  beaten 
him  in  fair  fight,  forced  her  to  watch  the  death  struggles  of  her 
soldiers  as  one  by  one  they  were  hung  on  the  ramparts.  Carried  to 
Port  Royal  by  the  conqueror,  the  heroine  of  Acadie  died  of  a  broken 
heart  at  the  end  of  three  long  and  weary  weeks  spent,  no  doubt,  in 
brooding  thought  over  a  broken  home  and  butchered  followers  and  a 
husband  who  was  now  a  wanderer  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

A    TURN    OF    THE    WHEEL    OF    FATE 

Charnisay,  like  the  wicked  of  Scriptural  fame,  flourished  to  the 
full  of  his  expectations  during  the  next  few  years.  Supreme  in  Acadie, 
confident  of  his  favour  at  Court,  fair  of  word  and  arrangement  with 
New  England,  reaping  riches  from  the  fur-trade,  successful  in  crush- 
ing his  only  remaining  rival — Nicholas  Denys,  who  had  been  his 
friend  and  schoolmate,  but  had  become  rich  and  strong  in  Cape 
Breton  Island — this  traitor  and  perjured  murderer  seemed  well  con- 
tent with  his  fortune  and  fate  and  devoted  a  good  deal  of  time  to  the 
Christianizing  of  the  Indians.  Suddenly,  in  1650,  as  if  in  mockery 
of  his  fair  future  hopes  and  the  brightness  of  his  prospects,  he  fell 
into  the  little  river  at  Port  Royal  and  was  drowned  like  a  rat.  De  la 
Tour,  meanwhile,  had  been  treated  with  the  respect  he  deserved  in 
the  parts  of  New  England  and  the  continent  in  which  he  had  spent  five 
years  of  a  wandering  life,  and  was  now  able  to  go  to  France,  refute  the 
falsehoods  of  his  enemy  and  receive  every  reparation  which  the  King 
could  give. 

He  was  made  Governor  of  Acadie,  the  fur-trade  monopoly  was 
placed  in  his  hands  and,  to  ensure  the  permanence  of  his  fortune,  he 


THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE  99 

cut  another  knot  of  difficulty  by  marrying  Charnisay's^  widow  and 
taking  the  children  of  his  great  rival  into  his  hands  and  under  his 
protection.  But  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  nothing,  to  a  man  of  his 
sensibilities  and  character,  could  compensate  for  the  shattered  home 
of  his  earlier  happiness,  or  the  death  of  the  brave  men  who  had 
helped  to  make  and  keep  his  earlier  fortunes.  Another  turn  of  the 
wheel  of  fate  was  in  store,  however,  for  both  the  French  Governor 
and  the  governed.  England  was  now  in  the  stern  and  successful 
hands  of  Cromwell  and  a  large  expedition,  which  had  been  sent  to 
capture  the  Dutch  settlements  on  the  Hudson,  was  turned  suddenly 
and  without  notice  upon  Acadie,  through  peace  being  patched  up 
between  England  and  Holland.  De  la  Tour  was  easily  overpowered 
under  such  circumstances  and  Acadie  over-run.  Boston  and  New 
England  were  at  the  back  of  the  new  move ;  Cromwell,  who  seoms 
to  have  understood  the  great  issues  turning  upon  the  apparently  petty 
struggles  of  these  rival  settlements  refused  to  intervene,  or  to  restore 
Acadie  to  France;  and  Dela  Tour  was  seemingly  crushed  and  ruined 
once  more.  But  he  was  not  the  man  to  meet  such  a  fate  without 
effort.  Going  to  England,  he  saw  Cromwell  and  impressed  him,  evi- 
dently, by  both  his  arguments  and  his  personality.  The  stern  Pro- 
tector relented,  and  granted  the  whole  regfion  down  into  the  centre 
of  what  is  now  the  State  of  Maine  to  a  Company  which  included 
De  la  Tour  and  Sir  Thomas  Temple.  The  latter  was  made  Governor, 
the  former  soon  sold  out  his  great  interests  in  the  grant  and,  weary 
of  tempting  fate,  retired  to  the  comfortable  obscurity  of  private  life. 
Until  1667,  when  Charles  H.  gave  back  Acadie  to  France  in  the 
Treaty  of  Breda,  the  land  rested  in  reasonable  quietude.  From  that 
time  until  the  finger  of  fate  placed  its  seal  upon  the  country  in  17 10 
and  made  it  British,  Acadie,  or  Nova  Scotia  as  it  was  called  in  Eng- 
land, had  many  Governors,  but  no  man  of  towering  personality 
amongst   them.      And,  though   its   place   is  so   important  upon   the 


ITO  777^  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

pages  of  history,  its  white  population  during  this  period  could  always 
be  counted  by  hundreds  and  only  rose  into  thousands  as  a  small  and 
steady  migration  toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  began  to 
have  a  perceptible  influence.  The  most  striking  figure  in  these  last 
years  of  French  rule  was  that  of  the  Baron  St.  Castin — hunter  and 
wood-ranger,  fighter  in  a  lawless  fashion  on  behalf  of  law  and  order, 
warden  of  the  marshes  upon  the  Penobscot,  friend  of  the  Indians  and 
guardian  of  Acadian  soil  against  New  England  raids.  With  his 
Indian  wife,  with  wealth  gained  by  the  fur-trade,  and  with  influence  at 
Port  Royal  maintained  through  his  power  over  the  Indians,  St.  Castin 
presents  a  most  picturesque  personality  and  one  full  of  material  for 
the  romancist  in  these  later  days  of  the  fiction  historical. 

Meanwhile,  the  Province  shared  in  the  ups  and  downs  of  Colonial 
rivalry  and  war.  It  suffered  from  the  raid  of  Sir  William  Phipps  and 
his  Boston  men  in  1690;  from  the  soldiers  of  Fort  William  Henry  at 
Pemaquid  ;  from  the  ever  fluctuating  boundaries  and  the  devastation 
of  Indian  fighting  on  one  side  or  the  other.  In  these  conflicts,  St. 
Castin  shared  and  at  times  triumphed  while,  in  1692,  Iberville 
Le  Moyne,  the  dashing  darling  of  French-Canadian  history,  sailed 
into  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  fought  the  British  fleet  in  a  drawn  battle  and 
captured  the  fort  at  Pemaquid.  In  17 10,  the  end  of  Acadie  as  a 
French  country  came  when  Colonel  Nicholson,  with  English  ships  and 
Colonial  soldiers  on  the  way  to  again  attempt  the  capture  of  Quebec, 
overpowered  the  little  garrison  of  Port  Royal  and  over-ran  the 
Province.  The  war-scarred  fortress  was  re-named  Annapolis  in 
honour  of  Queen  Anne,  and,  although  St.  Castin  and  his  Indians  did 
their  best  for  the  Lilies  of  France  and  tried  hard  to  again  take  pos- 
session of  Pemaquid  when  Nicholson  left,  the  struggle  was  useless. 
Although  the  expedition  against  Quebec  had  failed,  England  was  in 
a  strong  enough  position  in  Europe  to  dictate  terms  and  by  the 
Treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713  to  retain  Acadie  while  only  giving  up  to 


THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE  loi 

France  the  Islands  now  known  as  Cape  Breton  and  Prince  Edward ; 
together  with  certain  fishing  privileges  on  the  coast  of  Newfoundland. 
Now  began  the  evolution  of  the  romantic  and  regrettable  Acadian 
question.  The  people  of  French  extraction,  during  the  years  of  peace 
which  followed,  increased  largely  in  numbers  and  certainly  did  not 
decrease  in  sentimental  loyalty  toward  France.  Their  Mother-country 
was  steadily  strengthening  its  position  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence 
with  a  view  to  the  future  re-conquest  of  Acadie,  The  vast  fortifica- 
tions of  Louisbourg  were  designed  by  Vauban  and  built  at  great 
expense  on  the  Island  of  Cape  Breton.  That  place  became  the  head- 
quarters of  French  power  and  pretentions  on  the  Atlantic,  the  home 
of  French  privateers,  and  the  Mecca  of  Acadian  hopes.  It  supplied 
the  Acadians  with  a  market  for  their  products,  kept  them  in  touch 
with  French  sympathies  and  aspirations  and  plots,  and  prevented 
their  peaceful  acceptance  of  British  rule. 

CONDUCT    AND    CHARACTER   OF    THE    ACADIANS 

They  professed  neutrality,  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
without  a  proviso  against  being  compelled  to  take  up  arms  in  opposi- 
tion to  France,  and  became  the  easy  victims  of  emissaries  from 
Quebec  intent  upon  stirring  up  mischief ;  the  freqent  allies  of  the 
ever-hostile  Indians  ;  and  the  friendly  spies  of  the  Louisbourg  garri- 
son. Presently,  the  country  came  once  more  within  touch  of  the 
swinging  pendulum  of  European  war  and,  in  1745,  after  one  of  the 
most  memorable  sieges  of  history — and  an  incidental  French  attempt 
to  capture  Annapolis — the  mighty  fortress  of  Louisbourg,  the  sentinel 
and  guardian  of  French  power  on  the  Atlantic,  was  captured  by  Wil- 
liam Pepperell  and  his  gallant  New  Englanders.  Three  years  later 
it  was  returned  to  France  and  during  the  eight  years  following  con- 
tinued to  be  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  to  English  power  in  Nova  Scotia — 
the  Acadie  of  old.  Along  the  unsettled  borders  of  that  vaguely 
defined  region,  the  French  of  Quebec  also  maintained  their  claims  and 


I02  THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

a  policy  of  pin-pricks  and  fretful  irritation.  They  were  helped  by  the 
sullen,  silly  attitude  of  the  Acadians  and  by  the  ever-available  informa- 
tion furnished  by  a  friendly  population  of  French  and  Indian  and 
mixed  extraction. 

After  the  founding  of  Halifax,  in  1749,  and  the  steady  accretion 
of  English  or  Scotch  immigrants,  it  was  decided  that  something  must 
be  done  with  the  Acadians,  who  would  neither  leave  the  country  and 
join  their  friends  or  remain  in  the  country  as  faithful  subjects.  They 
wanted  to  live  at  peace  and  in  possession  of  their  homes  with  the 
privilege  of  acting  as  enemies  of  British  supremacy  when  it  so 
pleased  them.  This  was  the  real  meaning  of  "  neutrality "  under 
existing  conditions.  Governor  Cornwallis  called  the  leaders  into 
conference  in  1749  without  success  and  warned  them  without  effect. 
A  few  were  sensible  and  took  the  oath  and  kept  it.  The  majority 
were  not  and  still  remained  subject  to  the  machinations  of  French 
authorities,  or  the  schemes  of  French  priests  such  as  the  notorious 
Le  Loutre.  This  man,  typical  of  the  restless  condition  of  the  coun- 
try and  embodying  fierce  fanaticism  worthy  of  his  devoted  followers 
amongst  the  Mic-macs,  made  himself  the  centre  of  discontent,  of 
border  warfare,  of  Indian  outrage,  of  midnight  raids.  The  Black 
Abbe,  as  he  was  called,  dominated  loyal  and  disloyal  alike — the 
former  by  terror  and  the  latter  by  a  sentiment  of  shrinking  respect 
for  the  intensity  of  his  desire  to  restore  French  power. 

The  massacre  of  English  people  in  Dartmouth  by  Indians  under 
his  supposed  commands  ;  the  building  of  Fort  Beausejour  on  the 
Isthmus  of  Chignecto  by  Acadians  working  under  his  compulsion  ; 
the  murder  of  Captain  Howe  near  Fort  Lawrence,  when  bearing  a 
flag  of  truce,  and  by  Indians  known  to  be  under  Le  Loutre's  orders  ; 
are  pages  in  the  life-drama  of  a  most  extraordinary  man.  But  the 
end  was  near.  In  1754  the  French  Governor  at  Quebec  absolved 
Acadians  of  any  allegiance  to  England  whatever,  and  declared  that 


THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE  103 

they  must  join  the  militia  of  New  France  against  the  common 
enemy.  Colonel  Lawrence,  Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  naturally  retali- 
ated by  proclaiming  that  any  Acadian  who  had  taken  the  oath  and 
was  caught  fighting  against  the  British  Crown  would  be  shot  as  a 
deserter.  The  French  planned  an  invasion  from  Beausejour,  the 
English  anticipated  the  movement  and  captured  the  fort  which  was 
promptly  demolished. 

A    PATHETIC    EVENT 

Then  followed  the  pathetic  event  which  has  been  so  widely  dis- 
cussed as  a  result  of  Longfellow's  popular  and  charming  version  of 
the  story.  The  qualities  of  the  Acadians  naturally  lent  themselves 
to  poetic  description  and  their  sad  fate  has  also  brought  them  much  of 
sympathy  and  the  halo  which  time  so  often  throws  around  the  memory 
of  great  sufferings.  But  if  the  gentle,  attractive,  courteous  character 
of  the  industrious  Acadian  deserves  admiration,  so  also  does  his 
weakness  in  trying  to  run  with  the  hare  and  hunt  with  the  hounds, 
deserve  condemnation.  If  the  beautiful  villages  of  Minas  and  Grand 
Pre  and  the  lovely  little  homes  of  the  people  win  our  sympathetic 
appreciation,  so  also  should  the  continuous  effort  of  the  British 
soldiers  to  protect  them  and  of  the  British  Governor  to  throw 
around  and  over  them  the  shield  of  British  allegiance.  It  had  now, 
however,  become  apparent  that  the  Gordian  knot  must  be  cut,  and 
the  secret  enemy  within  the  gates  be  plainly  dealt  with.  One  last 
and  vigorous  warning  was  given  that  the  oath  must  be  taken  and  that 
the  olive  branch  thus  held  out  was  final.  They  were  told  distinctly 
that  British  allegiance,  or  foreign  exile,  was  now  to  be  the  Acadians' 
choice. 

They  chose  the  latter,  though  with  an  evident  disbelief  in  its 
accomplishment,  and  an  evident  faith  in  their  own  immunity  from 
punishment.  Governor  Lawrence  at  once  made  his  arrangements, 
with  sternness  and  secrecy.     Colonel  Winslow,  and  troops  from  N^w 


to4  THE  LAND  OF  EVANGELINE 

England,  supervised  the  operation  which  began  suddenly  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1755.  Within  a  few  months  over  6000  Acadians  were  sent 
from  Minas,  Piziquid,  Annapolis  and  Chignecto  to  various  points  in 
the  British  Colonies  to  the  south — a  few  to  England  and  the  West 
Indies.  Every  effort  was  made  to  keep  families  together  and  to 
preserve  to  the  unfortunate  their  precious  lares  and  penates.  But 
there  was  necessarily  much  of  hardship  and  suffering,  much  of 
romantic  adventure  and  stern,  unrelieved  sorrow.  The  beautiful  and 
historic  village  of  Grand  Pre  was  given  to  the  flames  and  Nova 
Scotia  was  finally  British  to  the  core.  Governor  Lawrence,  in  his 
letter  to  the  Governors  of  the  other  Colonies  regarding  the  exiles, 
made  this  fairly  reasonable  explanation  of  his  action  : 

"  I  offered  such  of  them  as  had  not  been  openly  in  arms  against  us  a  continu- 
ance of  the  possession  of  their  lands  if  they  would  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  unquali- 
fied by  any  reservation  whatsoever ;  but  this  they  have  most  audaciously  as  well  as 
unanimously  refused,  and  if  they  would  presume  to  do  this  when  there  is  a  large 
fleet  of  ships  of  war  in  the  Harbour  and  a  considerable  land  force  in  the  Province, 
«vhat  might  we  expect  from  them  when  the  approaching  winter  deprives  us  of  the 
former  and  when  the  troops,  who  are  only  hired  from  New  England  occasionally  and 
for  a  small  time,  have  returned  home. ' ' 

The  deed,  however,  was  done  and  seems  to  have  been  one  of 
those  incidents  in  a  vast,  tangled  web  of  Empire-building  where  an 
isolated  Governor  did  the  best  he  could  with  a  difficult  situation.  As 
time  passed  on  and  events  made  British  power  secure  against  either 
French  plot  or  French  assault,  the  Acadians  were  allowed  to  wander 
back  to  their  old  homes  and  to  rebuild  the  altars  of  their  sires,  until, 
by  the  Census  of  1891,  in  the  Canadian  Provinces  of  the  Atlantic 
there  were  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  loyal,  light-hearted  and 
prosperous  British  subjects  of  Acadian  descentt 


CHAPTER  V 

The  French  and  English  Wars 

IT  was  a  vast  and  splendid  setting  which  nature  provided  in  North 
America  for  the  panorama  of  war  between  France  and  England. 
Amid  the  gloomy  aisles  of  endless  forests,  in  a  region  thousands 
of  miles  in  length  and  breadth,  amid  a  myriad  of  lakes  and  rivers, 
and  around  the  inland  seas  which  empty  through  the  St.  Lawrence 
into  the  Atlantic,  bodies  of  armed  men  marched  to  and  fro  and  the 
sound  of  cannon  echoed  through  wastes  hitherto  sacred  to  the  free- 
dom of  the  animal  world  and  the  wild  vagaries  of  savage  tribes. 

RIVALRY    AND    WARFARE    OF    A    CFNTURY 

Sometimes,  as  the  hundred  years  of  intermittent  conflict  passed 
away,  war  would  break  out  between  the  settlements  of  New  France  and 
the  far  away  Colonies  on  the  New  England  coast ;  sometimes  it  reached 
the  Canadian  shores  or  passed  in  a  course  of  devastation  down  the 
Mississippi  and  Ohio  Valleys  ;  sometimes  the  sound  of  English  guns 
would  be  heard  from  the  ramparts  of  Quebec,  or  the  tramp  of  New 
England  volunteers  echo  through  the  forests  bordering  on  the  Great 
Lakes ;  sometimes  it  would  occur  when  the  Mother-countries  were 
nominally  at  peace  ;  sometimes  the  war-hoop  of  the  savage  would  be 
heard  on  one  side,  or  on  both,  and  the  shadow  of  the  scalping  knife 
rest  over  the  pioneer  homes  of  French  and  English  alike.  Every- 
where and  at  all  times  the  issue  was  the  ownership  of  a  continent,  as 

'*  The  flag  of  England  and  the  flag  of  France 
Waved  in  war' s  alternate  chance. ' ' 

The   rivalry  was   inevitable,  the   hostility  bitter,  the    conflict   of 

diplomacy  or  of  war  continuous,  the  result  concealed  from  view  and  its 

105 


Io6  ,  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

importance  hardly  understood.  For  a  time,  indeed,  it  was  uncertain. 
The  French  sailors  and  navig-ators  were  as  brave  and  enthusiastic  and 
determined  as  were  the  English  ;  and  Cartier,  Champlain,  De  Monts 
and  Poutrincourt  rank  easily  with  Kirke  and  Alexander,  Gilbert  and 
Raleigh.  Men  like  Drake  and  Frobisher  cared  little  for  permanent 
colonization  and  thought  more  of  destroying  a  Spanish  town  or  cap- 
turing a  French  ship  in  southern  seas  than  of  founding  a  city  or  estab- 
lishing a  colony  in  the  north.  The  French  monarchs,  fluctuating  as 
was  their  interest  in  New  France  or  in  Acadia,  yet  did  much  more 
than  the  rulers  of  England  to  aid  and  encourage  their  infant  settle- 
ments. 

CLAIMS  OF  ENGLAND  AND  FRANCE 

It  is  true  that  England  never  abandoned  the  wide  and  shadowy 
claims  which  rested  upon  the  discoveries  of  Cabot,  any  more  than 
France  ceased  to  press  those  based  upon  the  explorations  of  Verra- 
zano.  But  in  the  former  case  the  claims  were  used  more  as  a  lever 
for  checking  the  enemy's  ambition,  or  for  obtaining  equivalents  else- 
where in  peace  negotiations,  than  because  England  really  wished  to 
establish  an  empire  in  the  New  World.  Hence  the  result  turned 
eventually  upon  the  character  of  the  actual  colonists,  their  fitness  for 
the  rugged  work  of  pioneer  life,  and  the  willingness  with  which  the 
wild  adventure,  or  uncertain  trade,  or  the  independence  of  the  wilder- 
ness, might  be  sought  for  by  the  peoples  of  the  home  country.  In 
this  respect  France  at  first  took  the  lead,  and,  throughout  a  vast 
extent  of  country,  its  voyageurs  and  trappers  and  traders  swarmed  up 
the  lakes  and  rivers  and  through  the  pathless  forests,  emulating  the 
Indian  in  hunting  prowess  and  carrying  with  them  the  flag  of  France. 

North  and  south  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  up  to  Hudson's  Bay  and 
down  the  region  watered  by  much  of  the  Mississippi,  they  led  the 
way,  and  received  the  fluctuating  support  of  great  fur  companies 
whose  fortunes  varied  with  events  of  state  in   Paris  and  the  chances 


jfeKijME     LE     RDYSH     T,^     t,^     OAIJUEH  SIFHE, 


JEROME  LE  ROYER  DE  LA  DAUVi:.RSIERE  PAUL  CHOMEDEY  DE  MAISONNEUVE 


FRANCOIS,  DUG  DE  LEVIS 

MARSHAL  OF  FRANCE 

Second  in  Command  under  Montcalm 


LIEUT.-GENERALJ.  GRAVES  SIMCOE 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Upper  Canada,  1792-96 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  109 

of  war  in  America.  The  St.  Malo  Company  in  1599;  De  Montsand 
Champlain  for  a  number  of  years  following  1603;  the  Rouen  Com- 
pany formed  by  Champlain  in  1614,  and  its  rival,  De  Caen,  in  1620; 
the  Montmorency,  organized  from  the  union  of  the  two  latter,  in 
1622  ;  the  famous  Company  of  the  Hundred  Associates,  which  largely 
ruled  New  France  between  1627  and  1663;  the  Habitants  Company 
of  1645  ;  the  Du  Nord,  established  at  Quebec  in  1682  for  the  purpose 
of  Hudson's  Bay  trade,  and  others  ;  found  full  scope  for  the  longings 
of  ambitious  and  adv.enturous  spirits  as  well  as  for  the  aims  of  those 
who  only  desired  a  means  of  making  money  or  perhaps  of  wielding 
power. 

With  the  hunters  and  fur-traders — many  of  the  former  were  of 
noble  name  and  high  rank — may  be  classed  in  this  connection  the 
Jesuits  who  sought  the  salvation  of  souls  and  the  expansion  of 
France  in  the  wilderness  of  America.  They  were  path-finders  of 
empire  as  well  as  leaders  of  religion  and  they  did  much  to  forward 
the  interests  of  the  Most  Christian  King  ;  and  would  have  done  more 
had  they  not  at  times  introduced  that  element  of  sectarian  ascendency 
into  secular  councils  which  is  always  so  disastrous  to  united  action. 

Opposed  to  these  influences  of  zeal  and  energy  and  spirit  there 
was  nothing  for  a  time  but  the  slowly  growing  line  of  scattered  settle- 
ments along  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic  and  some  slight  English  fishing 
interests  on  the  Newfoundland  coasts,  although  further  south  Spain 
was  taking  possession  of  Florida,  Mexico,  Cuba  and  other  West 
Indian  Islands,  and  Bermuda.  Moreover,  there  was  little  of  unity  in 
thought  or  character  between  the  Puritans  of  Massachusetts  and  the 
Cavaliers  of  Virginia ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  Dutch  settlements  in 
New  York  which  were  to  ultimately  become  English  in  allegiance  and 
name.  But  there  was  the  great  factor  of  commerce  and  the  greater 
natural  gift  of  a  colonizing  spirit  in  the  English  people.  It  was  not 
the  kind  of  feeling  which  made  migration  to  New  France  probable 


no  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

SO  long  as  there  were  abundant  chances  of  war  and  opportunities  for 
a  wandering  life,  but  the  sentiment  which  sent  a  steady  stream  of 
settlers  from  England  in  search  of  a  home  and  with  sturdy  willingness 
to  take  the  chances  of  conflict  or  the  risk  of  an  adventurous  life  as 
incident  to  the  main  object.  The  French  built  fortresses  and  trained 
soldiers  and  excelled  in  all  the  arts  of  skilled  hunting  and  in  the 
fervour  of  religious  self-sacrifice.  The  English  founded  homes, 
created  villages,  developed  commerce  and  considered  all  the  rest  as 
incidental  to  a  period  which  must  in  time  pass  away  and  leave  them 
the  possessors  of  a  peaceful  soil  and  free  communities.  With  such 
characteristics  the  result,  though  hidden  from  human  sight  at  the  time, 
was  inevitable  when  once  that  thin  line  of  English  settlement  began 
to  grow  thick  and  overflow  its  borders  north  and  east  and  south. 

EVIDENCE    OF    GROWTH    OF    ENGLISH    INFLUENCES 

Argall's  expedition  into  Acadie  in  1612,  and  his  conquest  of  Port 
Royal,  formed  at  once  a  veiled  evidence  and  a  certain  commencement 
of  this  process.     Then  came  Sir  William  Alexander's  grant  in  1621 
from  King  James  I.,  of  the  whole  of  Acadie  ;  his  eff"ort  to  establish  a 
colony  two  years  later ;  and  the  failure  which  followed  as  a  result  of 
new   French  settlements.     Charles    I.   had  confirmed   this  grant  in 
1628  and,  as  war  had  just  been  declared  against  France  on  behalf  of 
the  Huguenots,  he  despatched  an  expedition  to  capture  New  France — 
of  which  substantial  territory,  with  its  shadowy  and  far-stretching 
boundaries,    Acadie   was   supposed   to   be    in    some   sense   a   part. 
Admiral  Kirke  and  his  fleet  arrived  during  the  summer  in  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  for  the  first  time  in  history  the  English  flag  swept  at 
the  mast-head  of  an  English  ship  between  the  shores  of  the  great 
Canadian   river.     Champlain  was    in  a  deplorable  condition  in   his 
newly-built  citadel  on  the  lofty  rock  of  Quebec,  but,   though  without 
supplies,  with  few  soldiers,   and  with  only  a  faint  hope  of  support 
from  home,  he  refused  the  demand  to  surrender  which  came  from 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  IM 

Tadoussac  and  held  on  to  his,  as  yet,  poorly  fortified  capital.  The 
English  Admiral,  however,  encountered  a  large  French  fleet  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Saguenay  which  had  been  sent  to  the  assistance  of 
Champlain,  captured  part  of  it  and  destroyed  the  rest.  Satisfied  with 
this  success  he  returned  to  England  but  in  the  following  year  came 
out  again  and  found  the  French  settlement  at  Quebec  on  the  point  of 
starvation  and  under  the  necessity  of  surrender. 

During  the  three  years  following,  all  New  France  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  English  and  much  profit  was  found  in  the  fur-trade ; 
while  a  Scotch  settlement  made  satisfactory  progress  at  Port  Royal, 
in  Acadie.  By  the  Treaty  of  St.  Germain-en-Laye,  in  1632,  how- 
ever, this  wide  Acadian  country  was  returned  to  France  in  exchange 
for  a  sugar  island  in  the  Pacific  and  for  some  arrears  of  money  due 
the  English  King  upon  his  wife's  dowry.  It  was  the  beginning  of  a 
long  and  shifting  panorama  of  war  and  nominal  peace,  of  rivalry  and 
struggle,  of  intrigue  and  cabal,  of  Indian  massacre  and  conflict. 
Amidst  it  all  the  clear  ambition  of  French  leaders  of  the  class  of 
Champlain  and  Frontenac,  or  Vaudreuil  and  Montcalm,  shone  out 
over  the  troubled  waters  of  war  and  corruption  in  New  France  and 
made  for  success  in  their  common  aim  of  a  great  French  Empire  in 
America.  The  prolonged  struggle  which  ensued  between  the  colonies 
of  England  and  those  of  France  did  not  run  along  the  lines  of  the 
relation  maintained  by  their  Mother-countries.  They,  of  course, 
dropped  readily  into  the  mould  cast  by  European  wars  such  as  those 
of  1666,  the  King  William's  War  of  1689-97,  the  Spanish  Succession 
of  1702-3,  the  Austrian  Succession  of  1742-48,  or  the  Seven  Years' 
War  of  1755-63- 

But,  preceding  and  following  what  might  be  termed  the  orthodox 
wars,  were  the  irregular  ones  rising  out  of  local  differences  and 
implacable  racial  rivalries.  The  first  of  these  were  the  Acadian 
troubles  already  referred  to  and  in  which  the  natural  instincts  of  the 


113  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

different  peoples  found  some  play.  During  the  civil  strife  which 
occurred  in  Acadie  between  De  la  Tour  and  Charnisay,  with  all  its 
picturesque  features  and  dramatic  incidents,  Governor  Winthrop  of 
Massachusetts  illustrated  the  situation  by  supporting  one  of  the  local 
combatants.  As  he  put  the  matter,  in  replying  to  some  one  who 
opposed  this  intervention  on  religious  grounds  :  "  Is  it  more  safe,  just 
and  honourable,  to  neglect  a  Providence  which  puts  it  in  our  power 
to  succour  an  unfortunate  neighbour,  at  the  same  time  weakening  a 
dangerous  enemy,  than  to  allow  that  enemy  to  work  out  his  own 
purposes?"  In  1644,  a  short-lived  treaty  of  amity  and  peace  was 
arranged  between  Acadie  and  New  England  and  ten  years  later  the 
expedition  intended  by  Cromwell  for  Quebec  succeeded  in  expelling 
the  French  from  St.  John  and  Port  Royal — with  some  help  from 
Massachusetts.  It  was,  in  the  land  of  the  Lilies,  a  period  of  most 
deplorable  complication,  and  it  has  been  said  that  the  trappers  and 
hunters  in  the  forests  of  Acadie  during  these  years  recognized  at 
intervals  as  their  Sovereign  the  Lord  Protector  of  England,  the  future 
King  Charles  II.,  and  Louis  XIV.,  of  France — sometimes  all  three ! 

As  yet,  however,  the  hostility  between  the  Colonists  of  England 
and  those  of  France  had  not  reached  the  stage  of  almost  savage 
bitterness  which  toward  the  end  of  the  century  began  to  characterize 
it  and  was  so  greatly  intensified,  if  not  primarily  caused,  by  the 
merciless  warfare  with  the  Indians.  In  1664,  New  Netherlands  had 
been  taken  by  the  British  from  the  Dutch  and  the  city  which  the 
latter  had  founded  re-christened  as  New  York.  La  Salle  and  Father 
Hennepin  had  explored  the  Mississippi  region  and  given  the  French 
strong  claims  to  the  vast  territory  reaching  down  through  the  heart 
of  the  continent.  Meanwhile,  both  nations  and  both  classes  of  Colonists 
were  trying  to  obtain  and  retain  the  alliance  of  the  Indians  and  to 
maintain  their  supremacy  in  the  great  fur-trade  of  the  interior.  At 
this  time,   also,   it  must  be  remembered,   the   French  power  vastly 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  113 

overshadowed  the  English  in  America  and  included  under  the  sway  of 
Louis  XIV.  most  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  country,  Acadie,  Canada 
proper,  or  New  France  as  it  was  usually  designated  in  a  phrase 
which  contracted  and  expanded  a  good  deal  from  time  to  time,  much 
of  Maine,  portions  of  Vermont  and  New  York  and  the  whole  valley 
of  the  Mississippi.  Little  wonder  therefore  that  the  New  Eng- 
enders dreaded  the  further  expansion  of  those  whom  they  looked 
upon  as  hereditary,  if  not  natural,  enemies. 

FRANCE    DECLARES    WAR    UPON    WILLIAM    IIL 

The  chronic  French  war  with  the  Iroquois — which  reached  acute 
stages  from  1633  to  1645,  from  1652  to  1654,  and  from  1661  to  1666 
— was  again  stirred  up  in  1687  by  the  differences  of  the  Marquis  de 
Denonville  of  New  France  with  Governor  Dongan  of  New  York.  It 
reached  a  white-heat  in  1689  when  France  declared  war  upon  William 
III.  of  England  and  it  lasted  with  fluctuating  intensity  until  1700. 
The  French-Canadian  population  at  this  time  numbered  about  1 1,000; 
that  of  the  English  Colonies  was  over  200,000.  Both  sides  prepared 
for  action  and  both  sides  sought  Indian  aid.  From  France  came 
Louis  de  Buade,  Comte  de  Frontenac,  a  man  who  in  energy,  resource 
and  determination  was  an  army  in  himself.  From  1689  to  1698  he 
acted  as  Governor  of  New  France  and  carried  matters  with  as  high 
a  hand  as  poverty  of  men  and  armament  and  troublous  controversies 
within  his  own  realm  would  permit.  By  his  instructions  from  the 
King  the  Hudson's  Bay  territory  was  to  be  at  once  invaded  and  the 
Province  of  New  York  over-run.  In  the  former  case  success  came  as 
a  result  of  the  brilliance  and  dash  of  Iberville  Le  Moyne.  Mean- 
while, the  Iroquois  had  glided  in  their  light  canoes  down  the  St. 
Lawrence,  ravaged  its  shores  and  reached  the  very  gates  of  Montreal. 
On  the  other  hand  the  Abenaquis  took  the  part  of  the  French  and 
struck  terror  by  their  raids  along  much  of  the  New  England  border. 
7 


tl4  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

During  the  succeeding  winter  of  1689-90  Frontenac  despatched 
three  expeditions  of  French  troops,  assisted  by  various  Indian  allies, 
into  the  heart  of  New  York.  Schenectady  and  the  other  positions 
aimed  at  were  captured,  and  much  of  the  country  ravaged  by  these 
intrepid  but  merciless  bodies  of  men.  They  had  marched  hundreds 
of  miles  through  snow  and  ice  into  the  centre  of  a  hostile  territory 
and  the  result  illustrated  once  more  the  power  of  a  great  mind  at  the 
head  of  affairs  in  a  time  of  peril.  Frontenac  simply  compelled  suc- 
cess and,  with  proper  support  from  France  at  this  and  other  junctures, 
might  have  changed  the  history  of  North  America  and  of  the  world. 
This  particular  incident  was,  however,  only  a  raiding  incursion,  and 
when  Frontenac  wanted  to  really  invade  New  York  in  the  following 
year,  King  Louis  could  not  spare  the  troops  and  the  Quebec  garrison 
of  a  few  hundred  men  was  necessarily  insufficient.  If,  however, 
Frontenac  was  unable  to  take  the  offensive  the  men  of  Massachusetts 
were,  and  an  expedition  was  fitted  out  under  Sir  William  Phipps 
which  speedily  over-ran  Acadie,  destroyed  Port  Royal  and  annexed 
the  country  to  his  own  Province.  Frontenac  retorted  by  worrying 
and  harassing  the  frontiers  of  the  English  Colonies  and  was  soon 
able  to  again  take  possession  of  his  much-harried  Atlantic  country. 

Meantime,  William  III.  was  being  urged  to  take  an  active 
interest  in  the  American  struggle  but,  like  King  Louis,  was  much 
too  busy  in  Europe.  New  York  and  Connecticut,  therefore,  under- 
took to  supply  a  force  for  the  over-land  invasion  of  New  France  and 
the  capture  of  Montreal,  while  Massachusetts  got  together  a  fleet  of 
35  vessels  with  44  guns  and  2000  men  for  the  siege  of  Quebec  by 
sea.  The  command  of  the  latter  armament  was  given  to  Sir  William 
Phipps — a  Colonist  of  wealth,  rank  and  romantic  experiences  in  the 
vivid  life  of  that  time  who  had  already  distinguished  himself  in 
aggressive  work.  Owing,  however,  to  miscalculation  as  to  the  sea- 
son, various  unexpected  delays,  and  some  repulses  on  land  from  the 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  115 

French,  the  fleet  eventually  had  to  return  home  without  accomplish- 
ing anything — despite  the  quaint  remark  of  Cotton  Mather  that, 
during  its  absence,  "the  wheel  of  prayer  in  New  England  has  been 
continually  going  round."  At  the  same  time  the  land  force,  under 
General  Winthrop,  had  to  retreat  from  the  banks  of  Lake  George 
where  it  had  delayed  further  advance  until  hearing  something  of 
Phipps.  The  latter  was  then  sent  to  England  for  assistance  and  the 
making  of  some  arrangements  about  Provincial  charters.  He  returned 
with  the  promise  of  ships  and  his  appointment  as  Governor  of  the 
United  Provinces  of  Massachusetts,  Maine,  Plymouth  and  Nova 
Scotia;  while  Frontenac  received  word  about  the  same  time  that 
King  Louis  would  have  sent  a  fleet  to  attack  the  English  Colonies 
had  his  means  permitted. 

In  1693,  ^^  British  fleet  sailed,  as  promised,  under  command  of 
Sir  Francis  Wheeler,  but  on  its  way  disease  broke  out  and  over  2poQ 
sailors  and  soldiers  died.  Eventually,  the  Admiral  and  his  ships 
returned  without  doing  anything.  During  the  next  three  years  the 
French  Governor-General  succeeded  in  checking  and  chastising  the 
Iroquois  and  rebuilding  Fort  Frontenac,  which  had  been  previously 
destroyed  by  the  Colonial  forces.  He  then  planned  a  regular  cam- 
paign and  it  was  opened  by  Iberville  le  Moyne  with  the  capture  and 
destruction  of  the  Fort  at  Pemaquid,  on  the  Bay  of  Fundy — perhaps 
the  strongest  possessed  by  the  English  Colonies  in  all  North  America. 
He  then  captured  St.  John's,  Newfoundland,  and  with  a  few  hundred 
men  over-ran  the  Island.  From  thence  he  departed  to  the  far  Hud- 
son's Bay  territory,  and  in  a  short  time  had  taken  the  principal  forts, 
subdued  nearly  the  whole  of  the  country  with  a  mere  handful  of  men 
— of  course  the  English  population  was  itself  very  scattered  and 
small — and  returned  laden  with  booty  in  furs  and  peltries  and  with  a 
well-deserved  reputation  for  skill  and  valour.  Later  on,  in  a  second 
expedition  to  the  same  northern  regions,  he  encountered  two  English 


m6  the  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

ships  at  anchor  upon  the  inner  shores  of  the  Bay,  hired  the  men 
into  an  ambuscade  on  land  and  destroyed  the  vessels. 

But  the  end  of  the  prolonged  war  had  come  for  the  moment 
and,  by  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  in  1697,  each  nation  returned  to  the 
other  the  places  or  territory  it  had  captured.  William  III.  had  made 
his  mark  in  Europe  and  had  weakened  the  immense  power  of  Louis 
the  Great.  In  America,  after  a  struggle  extending  up  the  Mississippi, 
around  the  shores  of  the  Great  Lakes,  into  the  ice-bound  regions  of 
the  north,  and  along  the  stormy  shores  of  Newfoundland,  matters 
were  again  demitted  to  their  former  condition.  No  peace  made  in 
Europe,  however,  could  hold  good  amidst  the  conditions  prevalent  in 
America.  The  two  great  rivals  were  striving  more  and  more  strenu- 
ously with  every  passing  year  for  supremacy  in  trade  and  for  the  con- 
trol of  trade  routes  on  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Hudson.  To  the 
French  at  Quebec,  the  natural  policy  and  the  one  pursued  by  La 
Salle,  by  Frontenac  and  his  great  Intendant,  Talon,  by  De  Courcelles 
and  by  some  of  the  later  Governors,  was  to  surround  the  English  with 
a  vast  combination  of  French  settlements  and  forts  and  to  restrict  their 
power  and  place  to  the  small  strip  of  soil  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  At 
times,  even  more  was  hoped  for,  and  Louis  XIV.  once  gave  instruc- 
tions for  deporting  the  English  at  New  York  in  much  the  same 
fashion  as  was  afterwards  actually  applied  to  the  French  of  Acadie. 
Upon  the  other  hand  the  English  policy  was  naturally  one  of  coop- 
ing the  French  up  in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  thus  check- 
ing their  enterprising  expansion  north  and  south.  In  this  aim  the 
English  Colonies,  of  course,  were  tremendously  helped  by  the  bitter 
hostility  of  the  Iroquois  to  the  French  name  and  nationality, 

The  Treaty  of  Ryswick  only  lasted  five  years  and  then  the  War 
of  the  Spanish  Succession  commenced,  with  England,  Austria  and 
Holland  pitted  against  France  and  Spain.  It  was  a  glorious  war 
for  England  though  one  of  varied  failures  and  successes  in  America. 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  117 

British  victories  at  Blenheim,  Oudenarde,  Ramillies  and  Malplaquet 
rang  through  Europe  like  a  long-sustained  peal  of  thunder  from 
a  stormy  sky,  and  the  echo  in  North  America  indicated,  at  last,  the 
line  of  ultimate  success  in  the  great  struggle  for  a  continent.  At 
first,  the  war  in  the  New  World  was  the  old  story  of  petty  raids, 
cruel  surprises  and  Indian  forays.  Massachusetts'  whale-boats  har- 
assed the  Acadian  coasts ;  a  Boston  fleet  tried  to  capture  Port  Royal, 
but  failed  ;  Hertel  was  sent  by  De  Vaudreuil,  the  Governor  of  New 
France,  with  a  mixed  war-party  of  French  and  Indians  and  succeeded 
in  surprising  and  destroying  the  inhabitants  of  the  little  English 
village  of  Haverhill,  on  the  Merrimac  ;  schemes  were  laid  for  the 
invasion  of  New  York,  and  rival  preparations  made  for  the  conquest 
of  New  France ;  the  Iroquois  played  off  one  nationality  against  the 
other  and  profited  by  the  enhanced  antagonisms. 

AN    AGGRESSIVE    FRINGE    OF    BRITISH    COLONIES 

Finally,  in  1709,  Colonel  Nicholson,  an  able  English  officer, 
organized  an  expedition  of  ships  and  Colonial  troops  for  the  capture 
of  Quebec.  When  ready,  however,  the  season  was  too  far  advanced 
and  he  led  it  to  the  coasts  of  Acadie,  where  for  the  last  time  Port 
Royal  was  taken  and  its  name  changed  to  Annapolis  Royal.  Acadie 
fell  easily  into  his  hands  and,  with  the  later  appearance  of  fifteen  men- 
of-war  under  Admiral  Sir  Hovenden  Walker — bearing  a  number 
of  Marlborough's  fighting  regiments  for  the  capture  of  the  great 
French  fortress  on  the  St.  Lawrence — it  really  seemed  as  if  the  knell 
of  French  power  had  rung  in  America.  In  the  following  spring 
Walker  sailed  from  Boston  for  Quebec  and  Nicholson  marched  over- 
land to  Lake  Champlain. 

But  the  former  proved  an  utterly  incapable   officer  and  leader 

and,  after  a  series  of  mishaps  and  mistakes,  left  half  his  ships  on  the 

reefs  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  carried  the  shreds  of  a  one-time  reputa- 

nion  back  to  England.     Nicholson  had  to  return  in  rage  and  disgust 


n8  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

to  Boston  while  the  churches  of  New  France  were  filled  with  paeans 
of  gratitude  over  this  narrow  and  unexpected  escape  at  a  time  of 
great  internal  weakness  and  distress.  In  three  years  peace  came  at 
Utrecht  and,  this  time,  England  returned  nothing  and  received  much. 
Acadie,  Newfoundland,  the  Hudson's  Bay  territory  and  St.  Kitts  in  the 
West  Indies,  were  surrendered  by  France  although  Cape  Breton — then 
known  as  Isle  Royal — the  Island  of  St.  John  (now  Prince  Edward 
Island)  and  other  places  in  the  Gulf  at  St.  Lawrence  were  still  retained. 

It  was  really  the  beginning  of  the  end  and,  instead  of  restricting 
and  hemming  in  the  English  settlements.  New  France  was  now  met  on 
the  north,  the  east,  and  partly  on  the  south,  by  an  aggressive  fringe 
of  growing  British  Colonies.  She  still,  however,  held  the  gates  of  the 
two  great  waterways  and  the  mighty  inland  seas  of  the  continent  firmly 
in  her  grasp  and  guarded  the  possibilities  of  the  boundless  west.  The 
future  seemed  by  no  means  hopeless.  Hence  the  plots  amongst  the 
Acadians ;  the  building  of  a  strong  fort  at  Niagara  and  of  a  rival 
English  one  at  Oswego  ;  the  creation  of  the  great  fortifications  at 
Louisbourg  and  the  preparations  to  hold  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Law- 
rence against  all  comers  and  to  recover  Acadie  ;  the  effort  to  colonize 
the  far  west  and  De  la  Verendrye's  explorations  in  that  direction  ; 
the  building  of  a  French  fort  at  the  head  of  Lake  Champlain — the 
afterwards  famous  Crown  Point.  Peace  in  a  sort  of  fashion  lasted, 
however,  until  1 740,  when  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession  began 
and  gave  an  opportunity  to  France  and  England  to  once  more  meet 
in  deadly  struggle.  Nominally  it  was  over  the  accession  of  Maria 
Theresa  to  the  throne  of  Austria  ;  practically  it  was  an  effort  by 
France  and  Spain  to  crush  the  external  empire  of  England  and  sweep 
to  the  pit  of  destruction  her  growing  commerce.  The  event  materi- 
ally and  immediately  affected  matters  in  America. 

The  French  Governor  of  Louisbourg,  in  Cape  Breton,  quickly 
decided  to  capture  Annapolis,  and  for  this  purpose  invaded  Nova 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  "9 

Scotia,  took  possession  of  minor  settlements  and  laid  siege  to  the 
English  capital.  For  weeks  he  maintained  his  ground,  but  the  com- 
mander, Paul  Mascarene,  was  a  vigorous  and  determined  leader  and 
the  timely  arrival  of  re-inforcements  compelled  the  French  to  with- 
draw. In  return  for  the  courtesy  of  this  attack  Governor  Shirley,  of 
Massachusetts,  organized  an  expedition  of  4000  farmers  and  mer- 
chants, together  with  a  small  fleet,  for  the  capture  of  Louisbourg — 
then  one  of  the  most  powerful  fortifications  in  the  world  and  held  by 
trained  and  experienced  soldiers  under  Duchambou,  an  officer  of  good 
reputation.  William  Pepperell,  a  man  of  immense  courage  and 
resourceful  ability,  but  with  no  military  experience,  was  appointed  to 
the  command.  After  swift  preparations  and  rapid  movements,  he 
reached  Canso,  a  place  not  far  from  the  fortress,  with  his  expedition 
and  was  there  joined  by  Commodore  Warren  with  four  English  battle- 
ships. Early  on  the  following  morning  the  army  of  volunteers  was 
in  front  of  a  place  which  a  French  officer  had  once  declared  could  be 
held  by  an  army  of  women  against  assault. 

Details  of  the  siege  which  followed  consist  of  incidents  of  steady 
and  brave  attack,  of  ceaseless  cannonading  and  the  continuous  repulse 
of  the  garrison's  sorties,  of  final  assault  and  victory.  The  surrender  was 
the  occasion  of  wild  acclaim  and  rejoicing  throughout  New  England,  of 
utter  dismay  in  New  France,  of  determinations  at  Paris  to  regain  the  all- 
important  place.  Two  great  fleets  were  despatched  for  this  purpose. 
One,  of  thirty-nine  men-of-war,  met  with  almost  countless  misfortunes 
and  had  to  return  with  only  a  remnant  of  ships  and  men.  The  other,  in 
1 747,  was  met  off  Cape  Finisterre,  in  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  and  was  utterly 
annihilated  by  Admiral  Anson.  I  n  the  succeeding  year  peace  was  form- 
ally made  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  France,  which  had  upon  the  whole 
been  successful  in  Europe  and  had  won  from  England  the  rich  plains 
of  Madras,  was  able  to  recover  Louisbourg  in  exchange  for  its  Indian 
conquest — to  the  intense  chagrin  of  New  England  and  New  York. 


120    •  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

The  peace,  however,  was  only  nominal.  The  boundaries  of 
Nova  Scotia  formed  an  easy  and  continuous  subject  of  dispute  in 
America,  whilst  Clive  and  Dupleix  kept  up  an  open  war  in  India, 
with  ultimate  victory  to  the  former.  De  la  Gallissoniere  was  now 
Governor-General  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  all  his 
activity  and  skill  were  devoted  to  the  strengthening  of  French  power. 
He  claimed  New  Brunswick  and  Eastern  Maine  as  French-Canadian 
territory,  maintained  forts  along  the  frontiers  of  the  Nova  Scotian 
peninsula,  marked  a  boundary  line  down  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  and 
restricted  English  trade  in  all  this  immense  region.  The  English, 
meanwhile,  founded  Halifax,  brought  out  settlers  to  Nova  Scotia, 
expelled  the  bulk  of  the  Acadians  for  intriguing  with  the  French 
authorities  at  Quebec,  and  captured  Fort  Beausejour  on  the  border 
of  the  Province. 

FIGHTING    IN    THE    FORESTS 

Duquesne,  who  succeeded  De  la  Gallissoniere,  pushed  the  claims 
and  power  of  France  in  the  west  with  equal  vigour.  After  the  failure 
of  a  Joint  Commission  which  sat  in  Paris  to  try  and  determine  the 
boundaries  of  the  Ohio  region,  he  built  several  new  forts  and 
strengthened  the  old  ones,  meanwhile  winning  the  alliance  of  many 
tribes  of  Western  Indians.  To  meet  this  aggressive  policy,  the 
Colonists  south  of  Nova  Scotia  sent  a  notable  protest  by  a  youth 
named  George  Washington.  He  was  courteously  received  but  did 
not  obtain  satisfaction  or  practical  result.  Then  they  organized  the 
Ohio  Company  for  the  purpose  of  trading  in  the  disputed  country — 
with  or  without  leave — and  built  a  fort  at  the  junction  of  the 
Monongahela  and  Allegheny  Rivers.  A  French  expedition  promptly 
destroyed  it  and  erected  a  stronger  one  which  was  named  after  the 
Governor  at  Quebec.  Governor  Dinwiddle  of  Virginia,  with  equal 
promptitude,  at  once  sent  a  force  under  Washington  to  drive  out  the 
French.     It  was  met  by  a  small  contingent  which  was  cut  to  pieces, 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  121 

but  the  whole  expedition  was  shortly  afterwards  surrounded  by  the 
enemy  in  such  numbers  as  to  force  surrender  of  the  temporary 
intrenchments  thrown  up  by  Washington.  The  latter  was  allowed, 
however,  to  retire  with  his  men  and  to  return  home  with  all  the 
honours  of  war.  Fort  Duquesne  was  still  safe  in  the  hands  of 
France. 

In  1754,  two  English  regiments  were  sent  out  under  General 
Braddock,  while  France  despatched  a  larger  force  under  Baron 
Dieskau,  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil,  who  was 
now  Governor-General  at  Quebec.  Both  Powers  protested  against  the 
thought  of  war,  while  Braddock  proceeded  to  plan  the  reduction  of 
Forts  Duquesne,  Crown  Point,  and  Niagara.  During  the  following 
summer  he  led  an  expedition  of  2,000  soldiers  and  Colonial  militia 
through  the  forests  of  the  west  toward  Duquesne.  In  the  defiles  of 
the  Monongahela  valley,  however,  his  force  was  surprised  by  ambushed 
Indians  and  a  force  of  200  Frenchmen,  who,  unseen  and  unharmed 
by  answering  bullets,  poured  down  an  appalling  storm  of  shot  upon 
the  helpless  troops.  Braddock  was  killed,  Washington  had  two 
horses  shot  under  him  and  his  clothes  riddled  with  bullets  and,  finally, 
some  600  shamed  and  beaten  troops  escaped  from  the  scene  of  disaster. 
An  expedition  projected  by  Governor  Shirley  against  Niagara  was  at 
once  abandoned,  though  Colonel  Johnson  of  Indian  fame  gathered  a 
force  of  Mohawk  warriors  and  Colonial  volunteers  and  advanced 
toward  Crown  Point.  Baron  Dieskau,  with  his  French  troops, 
encountered  the  invaders  at  Lake  George,  fourteen  miles  from  Fort 
Edward — a  new  English  fortification  on  the  Hudson. 

The  impetuous  French  leader  dashed  his  men  against  the 
temporary  barricade  of  logs  and  English  guns  which  barred  the  way, 
but  in  vain,  and,  after  being  himself  severely  wounded  and  captured, 
the  repulse  became  an  utter  rout.  Thus,  within  a  few  years,  two 
European   commanders   of    different    nations,    had    been    defeated 


la^  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

through  refusal  to  understand  or  accept  the  peculiar  conditions  of 
American  warfare.  Johnson  had,  of  course,  retained  his  position  and, 
without  advancing  further  he  proceeded  to  mark  the  victory  by 
establishing  a  strong  post  which  he  called  Fort  William  Henry.  He 
was  afterwards  made  a  baronet  and  lived  to  impress  his  name  deeply 
upon  subsequent  English  relations  with  the  Indian  tribes. 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1755,  therefore,  and  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Seven  Year's  War  in  Europe  the  French  were  triumphant  in  the 
west,  beaten  back  in  Acadie  and  checked  on  Lake  George.  In  the 
final  struggle  for  supremacy  which  now  began,  England  had  Frederick 
the  Great  of  Prussia  as  an  ally,  and  France,  Russia,  Austria  and 
many  minor  States  as  antagonists.  Out  of  this  conflict  she  came 
gloriously  triumphant.  On  the  plains  of  Hindustan  and  throughout 
the  wilds  of  America,  her  flag  floated  in  final  victory  ;  whilst  the  tire- 
less Frederick  maintained  his  grim  and  memorable  contest  in  Europe. 
But  the  first  years  of  the  war  in  America  were  not  very  bright. 
Braddock's  defeat  had  left  the  borders  of  more  than  one  English 
Colony  open  and  subject  to  relentless  Indian  raids.  Local  trouble 
and  constitutional  disputes — prophetic  of  a  not  distant  future — came 
to  a  head  in  some  of  the  Provinces  and  Pennsylvania,  while  squab- 
bling with  its  Governor,  refused  to  protect  its  own  frontier.  France, 
meanwhile,  had  scored  instant  and  early  success  by  sending  out  the 
gallant  Marquis  de  Montcalm  to  command  its  forces  ;  England  did 
the  reverse  by  dispatching  the  Earl  of  Loudoun  and  General  Aber- 
crombie.  The  French  leader  and  Governor  had  not  more  than 
reached  Quebec,  in  1755,  before  he  began  operations  by  capturing 
and  destroying  Fort  Oswego — the  English  base  for  a  projected 
attack  on  Niagara.  Then  he  hastened  up  to  Lake  Champlain  and 
entrenched-  himself  in  Fort  Ticonderoga.  By  these  rapid  moves  he 
secured  the  west  for  the  moment  and  fastened  the  gates  of  entrance 
to  the  region  afterwards  known  as  Lower  Canada,  or  Quebec. 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  \^% 

Meantime,  Lord  Loudoun  talked  and  did  nothing.  In  1757,  how- 
ever, he  started  for  Halifax  on  the  way  to  attack  Louisbourg  but,  unlike 
the  gallant  Pepperell  in  a  previous  campaign,  he  wasted  months  of 
precious  time  in  spectacular  preparations — until  the  place  itself  was 
strongly  re-inforced  and  twenty-two  men-of-war  were  guarding  the 
entrance  to  its  harbour.  Seeing  Loudoun  hundreds  of  miles  away, 
where  he  was  comparatively  harmless,  in  his  game  of  playing  at  war, 
Montcalm  promptly  sallied  out  of  Ticonderoga  and  laid  siege  to  Fort 
William  Henry,  with  some  6000  men.  Owing  to  the  cowardice  of 
the  English  commander  at  neighbouring  Fort  Edward,  who  had  3600 
men  under  him,  the  garrison  was  ultimately  compelled  to  surrender 
upon  a  pledge  of  safety  against  the  Indians  and  with  the  right  of 
marching  unarmed  to  the  nearby  British  post.  But  Montcalm  was 
unable  to  bind  his  savage  allies  and,  to  his  lasting  sorrow,  the  glades 
of  the  forest  suddenly  rang  with  the  Indian  war-whoop  and  the  soil 
soon  ran  red  with  the  blood  of  English  men,  women  and  children. 
Short  of  calling  out  his  own  troops  to  shoot  down  the  Indians, 
Montcalm  and  his  officers  did  everything  that  men  could  do  to  check 
the  slaughter;  but  the  Commander's  failure  to  defend  his  helpless  pris- 
oners with  his  whole  force  remains  a  stain  upon  an  otherwise  noble 
character  and  career. 

END    OF    THE    HISTORIC    STRUGGLE 

The  end,  however,  of  the  whole  historic  struggle  was  now  at 
hand.  External  as  well  as  internal  events  controlled  the  result  and 
perhaps  the  chief  of  the  former  was  the  accession  of  William  Pitt  to 
power  in  England  at  this  moment  of  greatest  triumph  to  the  French 
in  America.  Almost  in  an  instant  the  change  came.  Pitt,  like  all 
great  rulers,  or  statesmen,  recognized  that  the  success  of  a  war,  a  cam- 
paign, or  a  battle,  frequently  depends  upon  the  men  who  lead  rather 
than  upon  the  soldiers  themselves — important  as  the  latter  must  always 
be  in  character  and  stamina.     General  Sir  Jeffrey  (afterward  Field 


ii4  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

Marshal  Lord)  Amherst,  a  skillful  and  cautious  officer  of  much 
experience,  Major-General  James  Wolfe,  a  dashing  and  enthusiastic 
soldier  who  had  already  won  the  keen  appreciation  of  the  Great 
Commoner,  and  Admiral  Boscawen,  a  brave  and  experienced  sailor, 
were  despatched  in  1 758  with  an  army  and  fleet  to  reduce  Louisbourg 
and  capture  Quebec. 

Within  the  walls  of  the  great  arsenal  of  strength  on  Cape  Breton 
now  centered  much  of  French  power  and  prestige  in  the  New  World, 
Four  thousand  citizens  lived  behind  its  mighty  ramparts  and  3000 
regular  troops  guarded  what  was  now  supposed  to  be  an  impregnable 
position.  The  attempt  to  take  it  was  made,  however,  with  a  degree  of 
dash  and  military  and  naval  skill  which  marked  the  selections  made  by 
Pitt  as  an  actual  stroke  of  genius.  Pepperell's  original  plan  was  to 
some  extent  followed  by  Amherst  and,  after  a  heavy  siege  during 
which  occurred  a  constant  interchange  of  courtesies  between  the 
leaders  as  well  as  the  free  exchange  of  shot  and  shell,  the  gallant 
Chevalier  de  Drucour  was  finally  compelled  to  surrender  the  surviving 
half  of  his  garrison  and  the  still  frowning  walls  of  his  fortress.  With 
the  surrender  went  all  Cape  Breton  and  Prince  Edward  Island,  while 
the  great  fortalice  itself  was  levelled  to  the  ground  after  months  of 
labour.  So  well  was  the  work  of  destruction  done  that,  to-day,  grass 
grows  plentifully  over  the  almost  vanished  line  of  earthworks,  and 
the  erstwhile  scene  of  war  and  tumult  and  roaring  cannon  has  become 
one  of  quiet  pastoral  peace  and  beauty. 

The  garrison  was  sent  to  England  as  prisoners  of  war  and 
Amherst,  through  the  prolongation  of  the  siege,  was  compelled  to 
defer  aggressive  action  against  Quebec  until  the  next  season.  Mean- 
time, in  the  west,  Abercrombie  had  hurled  15,000  men  against 
Montcalm  in  Ticonderoga,  but  the  breastwork  of  stakes  and  logs  and 
trees  proved  invulnerable  even  to  the  claymores  of  the  Highlanders 
and  the  dogged  obstinacy  of  English  charges.     After  leaving  2000 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  lis 

dead  in  front  of  the  enemy  the  English  general  retired  again  to  Fort 
William  Henry. 

Elsewhere,  Bradstreet  was  more  successful  and,  with  a  force  of 
Colonial  militia,  crossed  Lake  Ontario  and  surprised  and  captured 
Fort  Frontenac,  with  its  rich  stores  and  a  number  of  French  lake 
vessels.  A  little  later,  in  November,  1758,  General  Forbes  compelled 
the  surrender  of  Fort  Duquesne  and,  in  its  place,  erected  Fort  Pitt — 
the  famous  Pittsburg  of  a  very  different  scene  and  era.  And  now  the 
final  act  of  this  great  drama  of  moving  war  was  to  come  on  the  stage 
of  destiny.  In  the  spring  three  English  expeditions  were  organized. 
General  Prideaux  and  Sir  William  Johnson  advanced  upon  and 
captured  Fort  Niagara  and  defeated  the  French  relieving  force. 
General  Amherst  marched  to  Lake  George,  forced  the  French  to 
blow  up  Ticonderoga  and  retreat  upon  Crown  Point  whence,  through 
their  ships,  they  still  maintained  supremacy  on  Lake  Champlain. 
The  English  commander  spent  the  summer  in  building  ships  to  meet 
his  enemy  with — a  sure  but  slow  method  of  capturing  victory  which 
gave  much  pleasure  to  the  active  mind  of  the  lately  beleaguered 
Montcalm. 

WOLFE    AND    MONTCALM 

Wolfe  and  Montcalm,  meanwhile,  were  preparing  for  their  face 
to  face  and  final  struggle.  The  former's  army  before  Quebec  consisted 
of  some  9000  carefully  selected  troops,  with  Moncton,  Townshend 
and  Murray  as  Brigadiers-General  and  with  the  co-operation  of  a 
strong  fleet  under  Admiral  Saunders.  Montcalm  had  about  i5,ocx5 
regulars  and  a  thousand  Indians.  It  was  a  tremendous  undertaking 
for  the  English  commander.  The  frowning  and  apparently  impreg- 
nable ramparts  of  Quebec,  bristling  over  the  great  cliffs  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  and  crowded  with  the  gallant  soldiery  of  France  under  the 
skilled  leadership  of  a  great  general,  might  well  have  proclaimed  it 
an  impossible  one.     Wolfe's  plan,  at  first,  was  to  tempt  his  opponent 


lad  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WAkS 

out  to  battle,  and  for  this  purpose  he  divided  his  forces  and  built 
various  redoubts  and  fortified  points  from  which  he  could  harass  the 
defenders  with  shot  and  shell  and  gradually  batter  down  the  walls  of 
the  city.  And,  though  not  successful  in  drawing  Montcalm  from  his 
stronghold,  he  did  seriously  weaken  his  outer  defences.  Meantime, 
however,  the  summer  was  passing  and  Wolfe  knew  something  of  the 
winter  experiences  of  others  who  had  attempted  and  failed  in  the 
same  task. 

Spurred  on  by  these  and  other  considerations  he  made  one 
desperate  attack  upon  the  Beauport  lines,  behind  the  trenches  of  which 
lay  the  serried  masses  of  Montcalm.  But  it  was  useless  and  he  with- 
drew after  the  loss  of  500  of  his  men.  Autumn  came  and  hope  grew 
high  in  the  hearts  of  the  besieged.  Wolfe  was  ill,  food  was  growing 
scarce,  his  men  were  becoming  hopeless,  the  spirit  of  success  seemed 
to  have  gone  from  the  enterprise.  Then  came  the  forlorn  hope  and  the 
secret  advance  up  the  Heights  of  Abraham.  Discovery  of  the  move- 
meant  meant  the  annihilation  of  the  English  force  ;  success  meant  the 
facing  of  an  army  twice  its  size  and  in  the  best  of  health  and  spirits. 
But  the  plan  succeeded  and,  as  morning  broke  on  the  13th  of 
September,  1759,  the  British  troops  stood  upon  the  Plains  and  faced 
at  last  the  army  of  France.  Charging  at  the  head  of  his  Grenadiers 
Wolfe  was  fatally  wounded  and  died  with  the  sounds  of  success  ring- 
ing in  his  ear.  In  the  rout  which  ensued  Montcalm  was  also  mortally 
wounded  and  died  on  the  following  day.  On  the  1 7th  of  September 
the  Lilies  of  France  were  hauled  down  from  the  great  ramparts  and 
the  Standard  of  England  and  her  Empire  hoisted  in  their  place. 

This  was  practically  the  end.  De  Levis  succeeded  to  the  French 
command  and  made  a  gallant  effort  to  recover  the  lost  ground.  Upon 
the  battlefield  of  St.  Foye  he  defeated  Murray,  who  had  replaced 
Wolfe,  and,  had  the  expected  French  fleet  arrived  with  re-inforce- 
ments  before  the   English,  might   have  put  a  different  face  upon 


THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS  tAl 

affairs.  But  the  reverse  was  the  case  and  he  fell  back  upon  Montreal. 
In  September,  1760,  De  Levis  there  found  himself  hemmed  in  by 
1 7,CKDO  British  troops  and,  in  the  ensuing  capitulation,  De  Vaudreuil, 
as  the  last  Governor-General  of  New  France,  surrendered  the  whole 
country.  The  Treaty  of  Paris,  on  loth  February,  1763,  closed  the 
struggle  of  centuries,  and  by  it  a  continent  practically  passed  into  the 
hands  of  England.  Spain  gave  up  Florida,  and  France  surrendered 
everything  in  America  except  Louisiana,  (which  a  little  later  she  ceded 
to  Spain),  the  Islands  of  St.  Pierre  and  Miquelon  and  certain  fishing 
privileges  in  Newfoundland.  England  was  thus  made  mistress  of  the 
western  world  of  North  America  at  the  moment  she  had  become 
the  dominant  Power  in  the  old  eastern  lands  of  Hindustan. 

The  American  struggle  had  been  a  peculiar  one.  The  civilized 
races  engaged  in  it  were  alike  brave  and  neither  was  naturally  cruel. 
Yet,  through  their  Indian  alliances,  the  conflict  had  been  often 
marked  by  uncivilized  and  barbaric  actions.  New  France  had  been 
greatly  hampered  by  indifference  at  home  and,  in  later  years,  by  the 
criminal  corruption  of  its  officials  and  general  misgovernment — a 
situation  which  all  the  skill  and  force  and  honesty  of  Montcalm  could 
not  overcome  or  even  greatly  modify.  The  whole  system  of  French 
Canada  in  the  last  half  century  of  its  existence  had  been  steeped  in 
corruption  and  charged  with  the  weakness  of  certain  disintegration. 
Still,  with  all  the  faults  of  their  leaders,  and  despite  these  fatal  diffi- 
culties, it  had  been  a  gallant  and  brilliant  exploit  for  60,000  French- 
men— all  that  there  were  in  New  France  at  the  close  of  the  rkgime — 
to  face  an  ever-increasing  volume  of  English  population  and  to  hold, 
for  over  a  century,  the  vast  territory  they  had  so  well  defended  against 
Iroquois  savages  as  well  as  English  enemies. 

Of  course,  the  latter  had  their  own  troubles  and,  if  their  popula- 
tion in  1759  numbered  a  million  and  a  quarter  souls,  it  was  none  the 
less  a  divided  and  scattered  people,  with  many  indications  of  the 


as  THE  FRENCH  AND  ENGLISH  WARS 

coming  stress  of  internal  storm  and  revolution.  The  end  of  the 
international  duel,  as  fought  around  the  walls  of  Quebec,  was  a  glorious 
one,  as  had  been  a  myriad  instances  of  individual  heroism  and  col- 
lective conflict  during  its  progress.  Beside  it,  now,  all  other  contests 
of  the  time  seem  dwarfed  in  the  immensity  of  the  issues  involved 
and  in  the  vast  field  over  which  the  contestants  fought.  In  its  result 
this  war  of  a  century  and  a  half  paved  the  way  for  the  establishment 
of  the  Dominion  of  Canada  as  the  American  bulwark  of  the  British 
Empire  and  of  the  United  States  as  one  of  the  great  Powers  of  the 
modern  world. 


CHAPTER  VI 
Colonial  Rivalry  and  Revolution 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  has  said  that  the  British  con- 
quest of  Canada  made  the  United  States  possible.  It  cer- 
tainly removed  from  the  Thirteen  Colonies  the  northern 
shadow  of  military  force  and  racial  hostility  which  had  so  long 
menaced  their  homes  and  hampered  their  commercial  progress  and 
territorial  expansion.  It  averted  the  possibility  of  France  some  day 
waking  up  to  the  real  greatness  of  her  position  in  North  America, 
and  so  strengthening  her  continental  resources  as  to  enable  the 
almost  impregnable  heights  of  Quebec  to  dominate  the  future  of  a 
large  part  of  America  and  control  the  development  of  a  powerful 
French  state  reaching  down  into  the  heart  of  the  continent,  and  per- 
haps in  time  joining  hands  with  Spain  In  Florida  and  Louisiana.  It 
increased  the  growing  spirit  of  Independence  amongst  the  English 
colonists  and  the  feeling  that  they  could  do  without  British  troops 
and  British  protection  should  occasion  arise. 

IMPORT    OF    ENGLISH    CONQUEST    OF    CANADA 

The  victory  of  Wolfe  at  Quebec,  therefore,  which  gave  nearly 
a  whole  continent  to  Great  Britain,  really  contributed  In  an  in- 
direct way  to  the  loss  of  the  Thirteen  Colonies.  The  bonfires 
which  then  Illumined  the  coasts  and  settlements  of  New  England 
and  lit  the  market  places  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  with  the 
light  of  a  great  rejoicing  were  the  last  of  their  kind  In  American 
history  and.  In  the  capture  of  the  army  of  Cornwallis  at  Saratoga, 
France  obtained  her  revengfe  for  the  defeat  of  Montcalm  on  the 
Heights  of  Quebec. 

8  129 


^30  COLONIAL  RtVALRY  AND  k EVOLUTION 

With  the  close  of  the  prolonged  war  against  France  in  America, 
of  which  the  Seven  Years'  War  in  Europe  was  really  an  incident  so 
far  as  England  was  concerned,  the  English  Colonies  began  to  develop 
grievances  and  discover  difficulties  in  their  relations  with  the  Mother- 
land. Had  a  spirit  of  consideration  prevailed  on  either  hand,  had 
the  Mother-country  known  more  of  conditions  in  the  Colonies,  or 
had  the  latter  felt  the  loyalty  towards  the  Crown  which  the  Colonies 
in  another  century  have  felt,  the  Revolution  would  never  have  taken 
place.  But  it  is  usually  forgotten  that  the  people  of  these  regions 
were,  with  certain  exceptions,  not  monarchical  in  their  convictions, 
nor  particularly  kindly  in  sentiment  toward  the  institutions  of  the 
Mother-land. 

THE    CLASSES    REMAINED    LOYAL 

The  classes  were  so,  and  the  classes  remained  loyal  to  the  end 
and  became  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  English-speaking  population 
of  early  Canada  and  Acadie.  The  masses,  however,  had  originally 
been  largely  composed  of  emigrants  who  had  left  their  country  for 
various  reasons  of  extreme  discontent  —  such  as  the  Quakers  of 
Pennsylvania  and  the  Puritans  of  New  England — and  had  brought 
with  them  an  innate  republican  spirit  and  a  certain  contempt  for 
the  forms  of  government  under  which  they  had  admittedly  suffered 
much.  It  only  required  the  increased  self-confidence  of  a  pioneer 
life,  and  the  friction  of  unpleasant  controversies,  to  prove  as  tinder  to 
the  torch  of  agitation  and  as  fire  to  the  rumble  of  rebellion.  Yet  it 
must  be  said  that,  with  all  this  ready  material  and  with  the  now 
admitted  grievances  of  the  Colonists ;  with  the  Stamp  Act  and  the  taxa- 
tion without  representation  question ;  with  all  the  arrogance  of  Brit- 
ish officers  and  the  incapacity  of  British  generals  and  statesmen ; 
there  was  not  in  1775  a  clear  majority  in  favour  of  actual  war.  A 
strong  minority  was  opposed  to  it,  while  another  section  may  be 
classed  as   indifferent ;    and  there  were  many  times,   even  after  the 


COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION  131 

Declaration  of  Independence,  when  skilled  statecraft  and  good  gen- 
eralship combined  on  the  part  of  the  British  might  have  turned  the 
rebels  into  a  really  small  minority  of  the  population.  But  many  of 
the  latter  had  strong  convictions,  a  great  leader  in  the  person  of 
Washington,  and  all  the  influences  of  such  fire-brand  oratory  as 
that  of  Patrick  Henry,  the  slave-holder  of  the  South,  when  he  cried 
to  the  heavens  above  him  :   "  Give  me  liberty  or  give  me  death  ! " 

However,  the  Revolution  came,  and  with  it  results  of  the  most 
important  character  to  the  great  Province  of  Quebec,  which  had  been 
recently  expanded  and  re-organized  by  the  Quebec  Act  of  1 774.  By 
this  measure  the  limits  of  the  Province  had  been  extended  to  cover 
French  settlers  and  settlements  along  the  shores  of  the  Great  Lakes, 
between  Lake  Erie  and  the  Ohio  River,  and  from  there  and  Lake 
Michigan  to  the  Mississippi,  as  well  as  north  to  the  Red  River  and 
Lake  Winnipeg  in  the  present  Province  of  Manitoba.  This  policy 
provoked  strong  protests  from  the  now  disaffected  English  Colonies 
as  did  that  part  of  the  Act  which  provided  for  freedom  of  worship 
amongst  the  French-Canadian  Catholics.  By  no  means  the  smallest 
of  the  grievances  alleged  by  the  Continental  Congress  of  1774  was 
this  establishment  of  a  Roman  Catholic  Province  to  the  north  and  its 
extension  southwards. 

The  extreme  Protestantism  of  New  England  was  up  in  arms  and 
tlie  resentful  rivalry  resulting  from  a  century  of  fitful  war  with  the 
French  along  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Great  Lakes  was  stirred  into 
a  storm  which  found  expression  in  the  course  of  an  Address  to  the 
people  of  England  passed  by  the  Congress  at  Philadelphia  on  Sep- 
tember 5,  1774.  After  references  to  the  arbitrary  rule  from  which  the 
French-Canadians  were  said  to  suffer  —  and  which  was  absolute 
license  in  comparison  to  the  liberty  accorded  them  by  France — the 
protest  read  as  follows  :  '*  Nor  can  we  suppress  our  astonishment  that 
a  British  Parliament  should  ever  consent  to  establish  in  that  country 


132  COLONIAL  klVALRY  AND  REVOLUTIOk 

a  religion  that  has  deluged  your  island  with  blood  and  dispersed 
impiety,  bigotry,  persecution,  murder  and  rebellion  through  every 
part  of  the  world." 

It  was  natural,  therefore,  in  view  of  hereditary  hostility  and 
religious  antagonism,  that  the  call  to  arms  in  the  following  year 
should  have  found  the  French  of  both  Quebec  and  Acadie  indifferent 
to  the  issue.  The  new  Continental  Congress  did  its  best  to  counter- 
act the  effect  of  the  preceding  religious  denunciations,  and  printed 
an  appeal  to  the  people  of  Quebec  to  join  with  them  in  opposing 
British  "  tyranny "  and  in  establishing  the  principles  of  true  liberty 
throughout  the  continent.  This  document  and  other  inflammatory 
literature  was  translated  into  French  and  largely  circulated  amongst 
the  habitants ;  just  as  every  species  of  revolutionary  argument,  and 
the  anti-British  ebullitions  of  unscrupulous  demagogues  like  Thomas 
Paine  had  been  permitted  free  and  practically  unanswered  circulation 
throughout  the  Thirteen  Colonies. 

WASHINGTON    APPEALS    TO     FRENCH-CANADIANS 

On  September  25,  1775,  George  Washington  signed  and  issued  a 
special  appeal  to  the  French-Canadians  based  upon  similar  lines  of 
thought  to  that  of  Congress.  This  document,  which  seems  in  historic 
retrospect  to  have  been  unworthy  of  the  usually  dignified  democracy 
of  the  American  leader,  dwelt  upon  the  struggles  of  "the  free-born  sons 
of  America;"  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  wretchedness  of  slavery  ;  the 
*'  poverty  of  soul  and  baseness  of  spirit "  in  those  who  would  oppose 
what  had  not  yet  risen  out  of  the  sphere  of  rebellion  into  that  of 
revolution  ;  the  "  cruel  and  perfidious  schemes  which  would  deluge 
our  frontiers  with  the  blood  of  women  and  children  ; "  the  "  tools  of 
despotism "  in  England  and  "  the  slavery,  corruption  and  arbitrary 
dominion "  which  would  follow  if  the  Mother-land  of  his  own  race 
should  prevail  in  the  coming  struggle. 


COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION  135 

Such  arguments  need  no  critical  consideration  in  these  later  days, 
but  their  continued  iteration  naturally  had  some  effect  upon  Frenchmen 
who  for  centuries,  at  home  and  in  the  Colony,  had  been  enemies  of  the 
England  now  so  harshly  denounced  by  her  own  sons.  Fortunately, 
however,  the  Government  of  Quebec  was  in  the  hands  of  one  of  those 
men  who  fully  deserve  the  designation  of  great  and  who  prove  the 
possession  of  characteristics  and  abilities  which  long-after  generations 
mark  with  appreciation  and  admiration.  Had  General  Sir  Guy 
Carleton  been  given  a  free  hand  in  the  English  Colonies  he  would 
probably  have  averted  the  arbitrament  of  war.  Had  he  been  given 
command  in  place  of  Sir  William  Howe  he  would  in  all  human  prob- 
ability have  suppressed  the  rebellion  and  captured  Washington  in  the 
winter  of  his  discontentment  and  wretchedness  at  Valley  Forge.  But 
destiny  had  other  ends  in  view  and  this  was  not  to  be.  Even  as  it 
was  Carleton  found  himself  hampered  from  time  to  time  by  the  con- 
stant unfriendliness  of  the  incapable  Colonial  Secretary — Lord 
George  Germaine,  afterwards  Lord  Sackville — and  was  eventually 
succeeded  for  a  brief  period  by  the  showy  and  unfortunate  Bur- 
goyne.  From  1 768  to  1778,  however,  he  was  Governor-General  and  in 
command  of  a  few  troops  maintained  in  Quebec*  To  his  energy  and 
capability  during  this  period  is  due  the  fact  that  Canada  is  to-day  a 
country  in  itself  and  its  people  a  British  nation.  Surprising  as  it  may 
seem,  Carleton  had  only  a  few  hundred  regulars  under  his  command 
when  the  discontent  in  the  Thirteen  Colonies  had  developed  into 
denunciation  and  their  riots  into  revolution.  And,  when  he  sent  to 
Sir  William  Howe  for  help  in  1775  that  officer  was  unable  to  forward 
troops  because  Admiral  Graves  would  not  supply  the  ships  for  trans- 
port— not  an  uncommon  illustration  of  the  mismanagement  and  inca- 
pacity which  prevailed. 

•  New  France  became  officially  the  Province  of  Quebec  in  1763,  and  after  the  division  of  lyqi  became  known  «s 
liower  Canada. 


136  COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION 

The  Quebec  Governor  could  depend  upon  little  aid  locally.  The 
English  settlers  were  a  mere  handful  and  were  naturally  dissatisfied 
with  the  Quebec  Act.  The  French  Canadians  were,  at  the  best, 
neutral,  and  in  many  places  threatened  active  hostility  owing  to  the 
false  statements  of  alien  agitators.  Yet  the  first  act  of  the  latter 
under  successful  conditions  would  have  been  to  abolish  the  French 
religious  privileges  and  immunities  of  which  the  British  Government 
had  been  the  grantor  and  was  now  the  guardian. 

CARLETON    SAVES    THE    COUNTRY    TO    ENGLAND 

War  had  now  come  again  upon  the  continent  which  had  seen  so 
much   of  strife,  and  this  time  it  was  a  struggle  which  should  never 
have  occurred.     George  III.  and  his  Parliament  had  drifted  from  the 
mere  assertion   of  a  right  to  tax  the  Colonists  into  an  attempt  to 
enforce  that  right,  and  the  attempt  was  made  without  vigour,  without 
'  knowledge,  without  continuity  of  effort,  without  organization.     The 
Colonists,    themselves,   had  drifted  out   of  discontented  dependence 
upon  Great  Britain  into  a  shadowy  alliance  and  thence  into  practical 
independence.     It  was  not  the  Colonial  independence  of  to-day,  based 
upon  loyalty  as  well  as  liberty,  and  which  seeks  for  means  of  closer 
union  with  the  Mother-land,  but  it  was  an   independence  founded 
upon  suspicion,   regarding  Imperial  unity  as  subjection  and   British 
institutions  as  a  form   of  tyranny.     Canada,  or  the  northern  British 
possessions,  had  also  been  compelled  to  drift  along  without  adequate 
forces  for  defence  and  only  in  Carleton's  Quebec  Act,  in  his  policy  of 
conciliating  the   French,  and  in  his  strenuous  efforts  to  obtain  more 
troops,  had  any  statecraft  been  shown.     Then  the  fight  at  Lexington 
took  place,  on    April   19,    1775,    that  of  Bunker   Hill   occurred  two 
months  later,  the  capture  by  Ethan  Allen  of  the  forts  of  Ticonderoga 
and  Crown  Point  followed,  and  out  of  the  general  policy  of  drift  had 
come  the  usual  result  of  disaster, 


COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION  -  137 

The  opening  of  the  historic  war-path  into  Quebec  commenced  in 
the  fall  of  the  forts  just  mentioned  ;  it  was  followed  with  the  invasion 
of  that  country  by  General  Montgomery  at  the  head  of  3,000  men 
and  Colonel  Benedict  Arnold  with  1,200  more.  The  advance  was,  at 
first,  eminently  successful  and  the  American  troops  forced  their  way 
across  the  Richelieu,  took  St.  John's  and  Chambly  and  compelled  the 
Governor-General,  with  his  small  armed  force,  to  leave  Montreal  at 
their  mercy,  and  to  retreat  upon  Quebec.  There  he  displayed  con- 
summate skill,  weeded  out  and  expelled  the  rebel  sympathizers,  enrolled 
several  hundred  loyal  volunteers  and,  finally,  with  1,600  men-at-arms 
awaited  the  American  assault.  Meantime,  from  different  directions 
and  through  wintry  wilds  and  varied  difficulties,  Montgomery  and 
Arnold  converged  upon  Quebec  where,  towards  the  end  of  November, 
they  demanded  the  surrender  of  the  city  which  was  now  the  last  spot 
in  the  Province  where  waved  the  British  flag.  But  to  this  and  other 
communications  no  reply  was  given.  General  Carleton  had  old- 
fashioned  principles,  and  would  have  no  intercourse  whatever  with 
men  whom  he  considered  rebels  and  nothing  more.  The  invaders 
were  greatly  disappointed.  They  had  not  been  able  to  obtain  the 
active  support  of  more  than  a  handful  of  the  French-Canadians  while,  by 
the  payment  of  worthless  paper  money  for  supplies  and  a  general 
indifference  to  the  religious  convictions  of  the  populace,  they  had 
estranged  most  of  the  sympathy  previously  gained.  Even  General 
Washington's  appeal  to  them  as  "  friends  and  brethren  "  had  by  now 
failed  of  its  effect.  The  French  settlers,  after  all,  had  had  enough  of 
fighting,  and  neither  appeals  to  love  of  liberty  or  to  racial  antagonism 
on  the  one  hand,  nor  pressure  by  Clergy  and  Seigneurs  on  the  other, 
would  stir  them  from  a  practically  general  neutrality. 

The  intense  cold  of  a  Quebec  winter  was  also  added  to  the 
difficulties  of  the  American  commander  as  well  as  the  certain  prospect 
of  a  British  relief  fleet  arriving  in  the  spring.     Choosing  the  speediest 


138  COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION 

apparent  solution  of  an  evil  situation  a  desperate  assault  was  decided 
upon  and,  amid  the  thick  darkness  of  a  stormy  night,  on  the  31st  of 
December,  1775,  the  American  troops  attacked  the  frowning  ramparts 
in  two  distinct  columns.  The  force  under  Arnold  fought  its  way 
into  the  city,  but  was  ultimately  driven  back  and  400  out  of  its  700  men 
were  captured.  Montgomery's  troops  were  met  by  a  deadly  fire  and  the 
General  himself  was  killed  while  leading  his  men  to  the  assault. 
The  latter,  it  may  be  added,  has  been  much  praised  as  an  officer  and 
a  man,  and  his  death  naturally  inclines  history  to  look  favourably 
upon  his  memory.  But  a  soldier,  who,  like  Carleton  himself,  had 
served  under  Wolfe  in  other  days,  should  have  known  better  than 
attempt  such  a  deed,  brave  as  it  undoubtedly  was,  and,  as  a  man  of 
presumed  humanity,  he  should  certainly  have  hesitated  long  before 
issuing  a  general  order  on  December  15th,  promising  his  soldiers  the 
plunder  of  the  city,  in  the  following  words:  "The  troops  shall  have 
the  effects  of  the  Governor,  garrison,  and  of  such  as  have  been  acting 
in  misleading  the  inhabitants  and  distressing  the  friends  of  Liberty, 
to  be  equally  divided  amongst  them." 

After  this  repulse,  the  enemy  simply  maintained  a  strict  blockade 
until  they  were  greatly  cheered  by  the  arrival  of  re-inforcements  in  the 
spring.  Almost  simultaneously,  however,  British  ships  arrived  in  the 
St.  Lawrence  and  the  Americans  were  forced  to  prepare  for  retreat. 
In  this  movement  Carleton  followed  them,  captured  their  guns,  and 
finally  turned  the  retreat  into  a  flight  and  utter  rout.  Shortly  after- 
wards a  small  body  of  British  regulars  and  Indians  captured  "The 
Cedars,"  a  fort  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  and,  in  June  an  American  attack 
upon  Three  Rivers  was  repulsed  by  a  small  force  of  militia  and  regu- 
lar troops.  Meanwhile,  however,  three  Commissioners  had  been 
despatched  by  Congress  on  April  27,  1776,  to  try  and  counteract  the 
exertions  of  Carleton  amongst  the  people  and  to  increase  the  hoped-for 
efficacy  of  Washington's  Address.     The  duty  entrusted  to  them  was 


COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION  139 

that  of  conciliating  the  French-Canadians,  and  for  this  purpose  their 
personnel  was  certainly  good.  Benjamin  Franklin,  the  most  astute  of 
American  diplomatists,  Chase,  of  Maryland,  and  Charles  Carroll,  a 
well-known  Roman  Catholic,  made  an  excellent  Commission.  For  a 
time  they  remained  in  Montreal  and  then,  for  their  own  safety,  had 
to  return  home.  British  soldiers  were  now  pouring  into  the  Province, 
Montreal  was  evacuated,  and  soon  the  invaders  were  driven  to  the 
shores  of  Lake  Champlain  where,  through  the  possession  of  a  small 
fleet,  they  managed  to  hold  their  own  until  the  autumn  of  1776. 
Meantime,  the  British  had  also  built  a  fleet  and,  after  a  hot  fight,  the 
American,  or  Continental,  forces  were  driven  from  the  lake  and  the 
ramparts  of  Crown  Point  blown  up  in  their  retreat.  The  inland  gates 
of  Quebec  were  thus  once  more  in  the  strong  hands  of  Carleton. 

PROGRESS    OF    THE    REVOLUTION 

In  New  York,  New  England  and  elsewhere,  the  war  continued 
to  drag  its  weary  and  bitter  course  for  years  after  this  fruitless  inva- 
sion. The  hollowness  of  the  claim  made  by  many  public  men  in  the 
revolted  Colonies  that  they  only  desired  the  right  to  rule  themselves, 
under  the  Crown,  had  been  shown  in  this  aggressive  campaign  against 
Quebec,  and  it  received  a  final  seal  and  proof  in  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  on  July  4,  1776.  Meanwhile,  the  British  troops,  out- 
side of  Carleton's  sphere  of  operations,  had  been  doing  little  except 
to  hold  New  York.  A  vigorous  military  policy  in  1775  might  have 
averted  actual  war  by  over-awing  the  riotous,  encouraging  the  loyal, 
and  forcing  into  consistent  allegiance  many  who  affected  to  favour 
union  while  really  working  for  separation.  General  Gage,  who  was 
in  command  of  the  troops  seems,  however,  to  have  been  undecided 
and  incapable  to  the  point  of  a  practical  abdication  of  British  autho- 
ity.  In  May,  1776,  Generals  Howe,  Clinton  and  Burgoyne  arrived 
on  the  scene  with  re-inforcements  and  the  first-named  took  command. 
Sir  William    Howe  was  a   brave,  but  self-indulgent,   frivolous   and 


I40  COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION 

incapable  officer.  During  the  year  which  followed  his  arrival  and  as  a 
result  of  circumstances  which  made  things  comparatively  easy,  he  won 
possession  of  all  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  defeated  Washington 
at  the  Brandywine  and  captured  Philadelphia. 

Here  the  ball  was  at  his  feet.  He  had  already  made  serious 
mistakes  and  delays  which  were  deeply  injurious  to  the  Royal  cause. 
But  activity  now  might  have  been  the  fullest  amends  and  have 
crushed  the  rebellion  before  the  Burgoyne  disaster  strengthened 
the  American  spirit  and  the  arrival  of  French  troops  added  to  the 
American  military  force.  Washington,  during  this  winter  of  1776-7, 
was  almost  in  despair.  His  small  army  was  entrenched  at  Valley 
Forge  in  a  fairly  strong  position,  but  one  which  Howe  with  his  supe- 
rior force  and  more  disciplined  troops  might  have  successfully  stormed, 
or  else  surrounded  and  starved  the  defenders  into  submission.  There 
was  no  army  to  relieve  them  or  to  draw  the  British  general  away.  The 
prestige  of  the  revolution  was  gone,  the  mass  of  the  people  was  sick  of 
civil  strife,  the  situation  was  so  gloomy  that  even  while  Howe  was  idling 
away  the  weeks  and  months  at  Philadelphia,  Washington  could  get 
neither  money,  men,  nor  supplies.  One  brilliant  stroke  might  have  set- 
tled the  issue  so  far  as  force  of  arms  could  do  it  and  time,  with  its  possibili- 
ties of  reviving  statecraft  and  a  more  conciliatory  spirit  might  perhaps 
have  done  the  rest.  But,  instead  of  changing  the  destiny  of  empires 
and  states,  Howe  preferred  to  spend  this  winter  of  vital  opportunities 
and  vast  possibilities  in  the  varied  amusements  of  a  gay  military  city. 

Meantime,  the  tide  had  turned  for  ever.  Burgoyne,  by  favour  of 
the  unspeakable  Germaine,  was  sent  to  indirectly  supersede  Sir  Guy 
Carleton  by  leading  an  army  of  8,000  men,  despite  the  wise  protests 
of  the  latter,  from  Lake  Champlain  down  the  Hudson  to  New  York. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  tell  here  the  story  of  the  disastrous  march  which 
was  ushered  in  by  apparent  successes  such  as  the  capture  of  Ticon- 
deroga  and  the  defeat  of  one  opposing  army.     Suffice  it  to  say  that 


COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION  141 

the  further  Burgoyne  penetrated  into  the  enemy's  country  the  more 
of  them  he  had  to  encounter  until,  finally,  surrounded  at  Saratoga  by 
30,000  Continental  troops  his  own  small  and  depleted  force  was  com- 
pelled to  surrender.  He  had  sworn  in  his  vanity  that  British  soldiers 
never  retreat.  History  declares  that  his  misplaced  obstinacy,  com- 
bined with  Howe's  inaction,  ruined  the  Royal  cause  and  crowned 
with  success  the  republican  armies  and  their  able  leaders.  Immedi- 
ately upon  hearing  of  this  surrender  and  the  evidence  it  afforded  of 
possible  American  success,  the  Court  of  France  accepted  the  over- 
tures which  Franklin  had  been  long  pressing,  and  not  only  recognized 
the  independence  of  the  United  States,  but  formed  an  alliance  with 
its  provisional  Government  and  prepared  for  the  war  with  Great 
Britain  which  necessarily  followed.  Spain  shortly  afterwards  joined 
the  fray  by  a  declaration  of  war.  Holland  followed  suit,  owing  to 
some  commercial  dispute,  and  the  hour  of  the  American  Republic 
had  come  at  last. 

In  Canada,  during  the  preceding  period,  Carleton  had  been 
firmly  and  faithfully  holding  his  own.  Many  things  had  occurred 
which  to  his  proud  and  confident  spirit  must  have  been  more  than 
painful,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  his  recall  in  June,  1778,  was  in 
some  sense  a  pleasure  to  him.  Service  under  such  a  man  as  Ger- 
maine  was  galling  beyond  comparison  to  a  Governor  who  was  by 
nature  both  statesman  and  general.  On  October  28th  of  the  same 
year,  and  before  France  had  really  plunged  into  the  fray,  the  Baron 
D'Estaing,  Commander  of  the  French  fleet  in  Atlantic  waters,  issued 
an  appeal  to  the  French-Canadians  which  touched  their  most  secret 
sensibilities  and  might,  under  other  conditions  than  those  created  by 
the  Quebec  Act  and  Carleton's  administration,  have  had  a  most 
important  effect.  As  it  was  no  great  harm  was  done.  In  this  docu- 
ment, after  addressing  the  people  as  "  military  companions  of  the 
Marquis  de  Levis,"  and  describing  them  as  having  shared  his  glories 


142  COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION 

and  admired  his  genius  for  war,  the  French  Admiral  went  on  to  ask 
them  whether  they  could  now  fight  against  their  former  leaders  and 
arm  themselves  against  their  own  kinsmen.  And  he  concluded  a 
strong  racial  appeal  by  declaring,  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  France, 
"  that  all  his  former  subjects  in  North  America  who  shall  no  more 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  Great  Britain  may  depend  upon  his 
protection  and  support." 

All  these  serious  developments  in  Europe  and  America  did  not, 
however,  disturb  the  pleasures  and  ostentatious  gayeties  of  the  supine 
Howe,  and  he  idled  on  at  Philadelphia  until  the  spring  came  and  then 
suddenly  resigned  his  post  and  returned  to  England.  Sir  Henry 
Clinton,  a  man  of  ability  and  energy,  succeeded  to  the  command  and 
was  at  once  ordered  to  evacuate  the  Quaker  City.  The  time  for 
really  vital  action  had  passed,  Washington  had  once  more  got  his 
troops  into  shape,  and  the  assistance  of  France  had  changed  the 
whole  face  of  affairs  and  the  spirit  of  the  people.  Clinton,  how- 
ever, pushed  the  war  with  such  vigour  as  was  possible  and  seized 
Charleston,  while  Lord  Cornwallis  over-ran  the  Carolinas  and 
Georgia  and,  by  1781,  had  much  of  the  South  under  control. 

Then  came  the  great  disaster  at  Yorktown.  It  was  the  result  of 
French  support  to  the  Revolution,  and,  incidentally,  was  occasioned 
by  the  most  miserable  exhibition  of  incapacity  seen  even  during  this 
war.  The  evil  genius  of  the  military  arm  of  Britain  had  been  Howe 
and  the  evil  genius  of  the  naval  arm  was,  in  this  case,  the  incapable 
Admiral  Graves.  The  former  had  allowed  Washington  to  slip  from 
his  grasp  at  Valley  Forge ;  the  latter  allowed  the  French  fleet  to  slip 
n  and  take  Cornwallis  in  the  rear  at  Yorktown.  On  the  17th  of 
October,  1781,  after  fighting  against  impossible  numbers  for  two 
weeks,  he  was  obliged  to  surrender. 

This  practically  ended  the  war.  Lord  George  Germaine  resigned 
his  place  in  the  Ministry  at  home  after  doing  all  the  evil  possible  ; 


COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION  14$ 

Cornwallis  returned  to  England  and  afterwards  distinguished  himself 
as  Governor-General  of  India;  Clinton  retired  from  the  chief  com- 
mand in  America  and  died  in  1 795  as  Governor  of  Gibraltar ;  Sir 
Guy  Carleton  was  sent  out  as  Commander-in-Chief  to  supervise  the 
evacuation  of  New  York  and  to  stamp  upon  the  pages  of  history 
by  that  act  a  failure  which  might  have  been  success  had  he  sooner 
wielded  the  supreme  power. 

THE    TREATY    OF    PEACE 

On  September  3,  1783,  after  prolonged  negotiations  at  the  Court 
of  France,  in  which  the  British  plenipotentiaries  won  the  deserved 
condemnation  of  all  students  of  diplomacy  by  their  weak-kneed  atti- 
tude of  surrender  and  indifference,  the  Treaty  of  Versailles  was  duly 
signed.  John  Adams,  Franklin  and  John  Jay  represented  the  United 
States,  and  their  combined  ability  was  enough  for  the  most  astute  of 
the  world's  statesmen  to  have  met  successfully.  As  it  was  they  had 
only  to  play  with  a  puppet  on  the  splendid  page  of  diplomacy  named 
Oswald — a  weak,  vain,  ignorant  man,  without  knowledge  of  Ameri- 
can affairs  and,  judging  by  his  correspondence  with  Lord  Shelburne, 
the  Prime  Minister,  without  care  as  to  the  maintenance  of  British 
honour  toward  the  Loyalists  in  the  war,  or  of  British  territorial  inter- 
ests of  any  kind,  so  long  as  a  treaty  of  peace  was  signed.  His  later 
colleague,  Vaughan,  was  as  bad  as  himself,  and  their  successor, 
Strathy,  came  only  in  time  to  save  Quebec  and  Acadie  from  being 
given  away.  King  George's  opposition  to  the  terms  of  this  Treaty 
and  his  sharp  reproofs  to  Oswald  should  win  the  old  monarch  some- 
thing of  modern  Canadian  sympathy  and  appreciation. 

Great  Britain  was  not  at  this  time  by  any  means  a  wreck  in  either 
resources  or  public  spirit.  The  union  of  the  Powers  against  her  had 
revived  the  national  sentiment  and,  had  a  stern  and  vigorous  states- 
man been  at  the  head  of  affairs,  the  final  result  of  the  struggle  might 
have  been  very  different  and,  certainly,  would  have  been  so  as  far  as  the 


146  COLONIAL  RIVALRY  AND  REVOLUTION 

boundaries  of  the  new  Republic  were  concerned.  Her  leaders,  how- 
ever, had  decided  for  peace  and  they  went  into  the  negotiations  in 
no  huxtering  spirit  and  with  an  evident  hope  of  winning  back  Ameri- 
can friendship  by  open-handed  generosity.  Franklin  wanted  the 
entire  continent  to  be  given  up  to  the  Thirteen  Colonies  and  espe- 
cially demanded  the  handing  over  of  Quebec  and  its  ill-defined  terri- 
tories. But  this  was  too  much  even  for  Lord  Shelburne,  though 
Oswald  declared  himself  quite  willing  and  actually  stated  that  he 
would  use  his  influence  to  persuade  his  own  Government  to  concede 
the  claims  of  the  American  plenipotentiaries.  Eventually,  the  whole 
of  the  rich  Ohio  valley  and  the  southern  part  of  what  was  then  called 
Quebec,  was  handed  over  as  a  gift  to  the  Republic  and  has  since  been 
carved  into  a  number  of  the  most  prosperous  States  of  the  American 
Union  —  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Alabama, 
Michigan,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota.  On  the  east  the  fatal  blunder 
was  made  of  defining  the  boundary  as  the  St.  Croix  River  and  thus 
inserting  a  wedge  of  alien  territory  between  the  present  Provinces  of 
Quebec  and  Nova  Scotia  and  depriving  the  Dominion  of  a  winter 
seaport  through  the  later  concessions  of  Lord  Ashburton — a  worthy 
successor  to  Oswald  and  Vaughan. 

For  a  time  peace  now  reigned,  though  it  was  a  peace  marred  by 
bitter  feeling  in  the  States  and  by  memories  of  sorrow  and  suffering 
amongst  the  Loyalists  who  had  migrated  to  the  British  country 
which  still  remained  at  the  north.  Looking  back  now  it  is  not  hard 
to  make  excuses  for  the  statesmen  (as  distinct  from  the  diplomats)  who 
threw  so  much  of  valuable  territory  away  in  order  to  please  and 
placate  a  sentiment  which  even  yet  they  did  not  understand — a  dis- 
ruption the  completeness  and  finality  of  which  their  successors  had 
hardly  grasped  a  hundred  years  afterwards.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  see 
that  the  value  of  these  regions  was  very  little  to  the  England  of  that 
day  and,  except  from  the  sentimental  standpoint  of  the  Sovereign,  • 


COLONIAL  ktVALRV  AND  HEVOLVTIOM  U1 

hardly  worth  the  tremendous  liabilities  which  had  been  incurred  and 
the  blood  which  had  been  shed.  Very  few  men,  great  or  little,  are 
able  to  look  a  century  ahead.  Nor  is  it  impossible,  even  while  regret- 
ting the  result  for  Canada's  sake,  to  understand  the  feeling  of  many 
outside  the  United  States  who  think  that  this  gift  of  territory,  and 
some  of  the  later  development  of  the  Republic  along  military  lines, 
was  all  for  the  best. 

The  die  was  cast,  however,  and  henceforth  the  history  of  the 
growing  Republic  and  the  future  commonwealth,  though  running  side 
by  side  in  a  geographical  sense,  is  entirely  diverse  in  the  evolution  of 
institutions,  in  the  creations  of  constructive  statesmanship  and  in 
popular  sympathies.  The  story  of  that  development  to  the  south  of 
the  boundary  line  has  a  greater  place  in  the  world's  canvas  of  events, 
or  literature,  but  that  to  the  north  has  also  possessed  much  of  inter- 
est, much  of  instruction,  much  of  political  shadow,  much  of  national 
success. 


CHAPTER  Vlt 
The  Loyalist  Pioneers 

THE  United  Empire  Loyalists  represent  in  continental  annals 
the  history  of  a  lost  cause  and  the  foundation  of  a  new 
commonwealth.  In  the  former  capacity  popular  ignominy  has 
very  largely  been  their  lot  in  the  pages  of  American  history  and 
sometimes  at  the  undeserved  hands  of  British  publicists.  In  the 
latter  capacity  they  have  become  enshrined  in  the  records  of  self- 
sacrifice  and  toil  and  suffering  which  have  gone  into  the  making  of 
Canada  as  they  must  go  Into  the  creation  of  anything  worth  having 
in  this  complex  world  of  ours. 

THE    PLACE    HELD    BY    THE    AMERICAN    LOYALISTS 

Yet  to  the  Impartial  student  of  history,  of  the  workings  of  national 
sentiment,  of  the  hidden  springs  which  mould  the  character  and 
control  the  action  of  individuals  at  a  great  public  crisis,  the  place 
held  by  the  American  Loyalists  was  as  honourable  and  consistent  In 
their  own  country  as  It  afterwards  became  In  the  British  land  to  the 
north.  To  understand  their  later  position,  as  well  as  their  migration, 
a  few  words  must  be  said  here  regarding  the  cardinal  principles  which 
actuated  their  conduct  and  stamped  their  character. 

They  were  sincerely  loyal  to  the  King.  The  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  still  a  monarchical  age  and  the  Sovereign  was 
to  the  great  mass  of  his  subjects  still  an  object  of  personal  allegiance 
— even  in  a  certain  limited  sense  to  the  republican-minded  Puritan. 
He  had  not  become,  and  no  one  as  yet  dreamed  of  his  becoming,  a 
constitutional  ruler  In  the  modern  sense ;  an  embodiment  of  the  State 
and  a  sort  of  incarnation  of  the  popular  will.  Even  to-day,  In  the 
148 


THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS  1 49 

British  Empire,  it  is  a  question  if  the  factor  of  personal  loyalty  is  not 
powerful  enough  to  hold  the  Sovereign  in  her  place  should  she  choose 
to  take  what  might  be  termed  an  arbitrary  course.  A  century  ago  it 
was  a  matter  of  duty,  of  patriotism,  to  myriads  of  the  King's  subjects 
to  condone  actions  which  they  disapproved  at  heart  because  of  this 
sentiment  which  surrounded  the  throne  of  the  realm  and  environed 
the  royal  person  with  something  more  than  mere  respect. 

PRINCIPLES,    TRADITIONS    AND    GENERAL    POSITIONS 

The  spirit  of  the  Cavaliers  and  soldiers,  the  gentry  and  the  peas- 
ants, who  alike  rallied  around  the  amiable  weaknesses  of  Charles  I., 
and  the  virtues  and  vices  of  Charles  II.,  was  still  abroad  in  the 
American  land  and  found  its  place  amid  the  gentry  of  Virginia  as  it 
did  amongst  some  of  the  sturdy  sons  of  New  England.  To  these 
men,  and  it  must  be  remembered  they  were  in  the  majority  when 
the  Revolution  began,  the  name  of  the  King  still  embodied  fealty  to 
the  State  as  it  certainly  required  loyalty  to  the  flag  and  institutions  of 
their  fathers.  In  itself  this  loyalty  was  an  admirable  quality  and 
one  which  proved  its  inherent  strength  in  the  privations  and  suffer- 
ings which  came  to  those  who  held  it ; 

' '  They  counted  neither  cost  nor  danger,  spurned 
Defections,  treasons,  spoils  ;  but  feared  God, 
Nor  shamed  of  their  allegiance  to  the  King. ' ' 

Nor  was  King  George  and  his  cause  altogether  unworthy  of  this 
sentiment — apart  from  the  principle  of  personal  loyalty.  There  was 
enough  of  greatness  in  the  character  of  American  leaders  at  this  time, 
of  justification  in  the  complaints  of  Colonial  politicians  and  the  people, 
of  excuse  in  the  mistakes  and  ignorance  of  British  administrators,  to 
make  it  a  matter  of  surprise  that  there  has  not  been  more 
magnanimity  shown  by  the  writers  and  speakers  of  the  Republic  to 
the  honesty  of  purpose  and  purity  of  principle  shown  by  this  much- 
troubled   monarch.       It   was    the    misfortune   of    George    III.    that 


I50  THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS 

he    represented    a    system    of    administration    which    the    Thirteen 

Colonies  had  out-grown  ;  that  he  and  his  advisers  had  no  precedents 

in  Colonial  self-government  to  guide  them  ;  that  his  Ministers  were 

often  narrow  and  not  very  able  men,  and  the  one  in  charge  of  Colonial 

affairs — Lord  George   Germaine — the  most  criminally  incompetent, 

vain  and  selfish  personage  who  ever  held  power  at  a  critical  juncture  ; 

that  the  Liberal  leaders  of  the  time  were  seriously  open  to  suspicion 

and  Charles  James  Fox,  at  least,  an  acknowledged  ally  of  the  French 

enemies  of  England  ;  that  the  King's  own  periods  of  mental  blindness 

made  a  continuous  and  efficient  policy  very  difficult. 

Personally,  these  complications — to   say  nothing  of  a  wild  and 

wicked  son  who  sought  only  means  of  hurting  the  King  in  heart  and 

reputation — appear  to  deserve  some  sympathy  rather  than  unstinted 

condemnation.      It   was   to    the  King's  credit,   also,   that   he   never 

swerved  in  his  desire  and  intention  to  hold  the   Empire  intact — as  it 

was  his  bounden  duty  to  do  ;  that  in  this  policy  his  Parliament,  by  a 

great  majority,  was  with  him  ;  that  the  mass  of  the  English   people 

was  devoted   to  him  and   those  who  knew  him  best  were   amongst 

his  warmest  admirers ;  that  when  he  wrote  to   Lord  North  on  June 

13,  1 781  :  "We  have  the  greatest  objects  to  make  us  zealous  in  our 

pursuit  for  we   are  contending  for  our  whole   consequence,  whether 

we  are  to  rank  amongst  the  great    Powers  or  be  reduced  to  one  of 

the  least  considerable,"  he  voiced  the  sentiment  of  every  ruler  who  feels 

the  sense  of  duty  to  his  country  and  people ;  that  though  he  naturally  did 
r 
not  understand,  any  more  than  did  the  Colonists  themselves,  the  modern 

principle  of  constitutional  Parliaments  in  distant  countries  administered 
by  a  representative  of  the  Crown,  he  yet  was  willing  to  offer  seats  in 
the  Imperial  Parliament  to  Colonial  delegates  and  to  repeal  the  not  alto- 
gether unjust  Stamp  Act  as  soon  as  he  found  that  the  people  would 
not  submit  to  even  that  measure  of  taxation  in  return  for  the  immense 
indebtedness  incurred  by  England  in  their  defence  against  France. 


THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS  151 

When  we  look  closely  and  calmly  at  this  picture  of  the  King 
struggling  against  incompetent  Ministers  and  politicians  who  cared 
more  for  parties  than  for  empire,  facing  unavoidable  periods  of  per- 
sonal aberration,  battling  with  foreign  enemies  who  soon  included 
France  and  Spain  and  Holland,  as  well  as  the  revolted  Colonies, 
it  is  impossible  not  to  feel  that  George  III.,  with  all  his  mistakes 
and  limited  abilities,  was  as  truly  patriotic  in  his  opposition  to  the 
Revolution  as  Lincoln  was  in  his  antagonism  to  a  later  Rebellion. 
History,  when  separated  from  the  influences  of  national  and  perhaps 
natural  hostility,  will  eventually  throw  a  chaplet  of  credit  upon  the 
memory  of  the  monarch  who  lived  so  sad  a  life  and  fought  a  losing 
struggle  in  the  spirit  of  his  letter  to  Lord  North  on  November  3,  1 781 : 
"  I  feel  the  justice  of  our  cause ;  I  put  the  greatest  confidence  in  the 
valour  of  our  army  and  navy,  and  above  all,  in  the  assistance  of 
Divine  Providence." 

At  the  same  time  these  considerations  naturally  did  not  commend 
themselves  very  strongly  to  men  of  democratic  character  who  had 
been  moulded  in  the  melting-pot  of  war  and  privation  and  pioneer 
labour — to  say  nothing  of  hereditary  affiliation  in  many  cases  to  the 
Roundheads  and  Republicans  of  a  preceding  period  in  England. 
They  chafed  against  commercial  restrictions  and  the  bonds  of  the 
Navigation  Laws  ;  against  the  not  infrequent  insults  of  a  rough  sol- 
diery and  supercilious  officers  ;  against  the  attempts  to  prevent  smug- 
gling and  to  collect  taxes  at  the  end  of  the  bayonet.  That  a  large 
minority  finally  revolted  against  all  the  complications  arising  out  of  this 
ignorant  attempt  of  a  free  Parliament  and  its  King  to  govern  a  free 
people  three  thousand  miles  away,  is  not  altogether  to  be  wondered 
at.  The  British  authorities  were  without  the  machinery  of  suitable 
administration  which  might  have  made  their  effort  at  government 
successful,  without  the  knowledge  of  local  conditions  which  might  have 
brought  the  distant  Sovereign  and  his  Ministers  into  touch  with  the 


1 5 2  THE  LO  YALIST  PIONEERS 

Colonial  masses,  without  a  capacity  on  the  part  of  the  King  himself 
to  select  wise  Governors  and  able  commanders  of  the  forces.  The 
mistake  of  King  George  and  the  one  for  which  he  must  stand  con- 
demned at  the  bar  of  history  was  his  choice  of  subordinates  and  his 
refusal  to  follow  at  an  early  period  the  advice  of  Pitt.  There  is  abso- 
lutely no  excuse  for  the  placing  of  Lord  George  Germaine  m  charge 
of  Colonial  affairs,  or  for  the  appointment  of  such  officers  as  Graves 
and  Howe  and  Burgoyne,  and  others  who  were  placed  in  responsible 
positions  in  the  Colonies  from  time  to  time. 

POSITION    OF    THE    LOYALISTS 

The  cause  of  the  Loyalists  was  based,  however,  upon  more  than 
loyalty  to  their  King  and  their  home  country.  It  was  at  first  the 
product  of  political  opinions  to  which  they  would  seem  to  have  had 
every  right  in  a  free  land.  If  the  agitators  had  the  inborn  privilege 
of  supporting  constitutional  change  and  of  urging  action  which  the 
Tories  of  the  time  believed  would  overthrow  all  that  they  held  most 
worthy  of  allegiance  and  regard,  certainly  the  latter  had  also  the  right 
to  oppose  such  proposals.  If  that  right  of  opposition  belonged  to 
them  at  a  time  when  Washington  and  Franklin,  Jefferson,  Jay  and 
Madison,  were  all  declaiming  against  the  possibility  of  separation 
from  the  Mother-land  coming  as  a  result  of  their  agitation,  how 
much  more  was  it  theirs  when  rebellion  came  to  a  head  and  indepen- 
dence was  proclaimed  ?  With  the  feeling  which  they  possessed 
resistance  to  rebellion  became  a  sacred  duty  and  was  certainly  as  much 
a  matter  of  principle  as  was  the  struggle  of  the  Continental  troops  for 
what  they  believed  to  be  "life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

But,  as  so  often  happens  in  history,  might  in  the  end  became 
right ;  loyalty  to  the  King  became  disloyalty  to  the  new  state  which 
had  risen  out  of  the  cramped  Colonial  conditions  of  the  preceding 
time ;  failure  to  hold  the  country  for  England  resulted  in  failure  to 
hold  anything  for  themselves.     Yet  the  Loyalists  put  up  a  good  fight 


CHATEAU  DE  RAMEZAY,  MONTREAL 


OLD   HULSON'S   BAY   COMPANY    POST   NEAR   MONTREAL 


THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS  155 

for  the  faith  that  was  in  them.  The  British  Legion,  the  Royal 
Fencible  Americans,  the  Queen's  Rangers,  the  New  York  Volunteers, 
the  King's  American  Regiments,  the  Prince  of  Wales'  American  Vol- 
unteers, the  Maryland  Loyalists,  De  Lancey's  Battalion,  the  Second 
American  Regiment,  the  King's  Rangers,  the  South  Carolina  Royal- 
ists, the  North  Carolina  Highland  Regiment,  the  King's  American 
Dragoons,  the  Loyal  American  Regiment,  the  American  Legion, 
the  Loyal  Foresters,  the  Orange  Rangers,  the  Pennsylvania  Loyal- 
ists, the  Guides  and  Pioneers,  the  North  Carolina  Volunteers,  the 
Georgia  Loyalists,  the  West  Chester  Volunteers,  were  amongst  the 
Colonial  regiments  fighting  on  the  King's  side. 

When  the  war  was  over  they  suffered  confiscation  of  property,  as 
in  many  cases  during  the  struggle  and  before  actually  taking  up  arms, 
they  had  suffered  indignity  and  outrage  at  the  hands  of  that  portion 
of  a  people  which  all  war  lets  loose  and  which,  in  this  case,  was 
unfortunately  too  often  encouraged  by  political  leaders  with  other 
ends  than  those  of  patriotism  in  view.  Apart  from  this  aggressive 
element  in  the  loyal  part  of  the  population  there  were  numbers  of 
peaceful  and  unoffending  citizens  who  simply  desired  to  maintain  the 
law  as  it  stood  and  to  remain  neutral  in  the  strife  around  them.  They 
were  not  of  a  type  to  be  specially  admired,  but  they  suffered  abun- 
dantly for  their  mistaken  view  of  the  situation.  To  drift  and  hesitate 
in  days  of  rebellion  is  to  invite  danger  and  court  destruction.  Many 
of  these  people,  as  well  as  of  the  acknowledged  Loyalists,  were  tarred 
and  feathered,  their  prop'erty  destroyed  or  taken  from  them,  their 
dues  in  debts,  or  rents,  or  interest  repudiated,  their  houses  burned. 
Much  of  this  occurred  before  the  civil  war  actually  commenced.  After 
1775,  every  form  of  penalty  was  imposed — death,  or  confiscation,  or 
imprisonment — upon  those  who  refused  to  support  the  republican 
cause.  On  both  sides,  as  feeling  grew  more  bitter,  the  treatment  of 
the   non-combatants  became  more  cruel  and,  naturally,  the   Loyalist 


156  THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS 

element  suffered  the  most.  How  intense  was  the  feeling  of  their 
opponents  may  be  judged  by  the  declaration  of  John  Adams,  after- 
wards President  of  the  United  States,  that  he  would  have  hanged  his 
own  brother  had  he  taken  the  British  part  in  the  contest.  When  the 
Treaty  of  Versailles  was  being  negotiated  efforts  were  made  to  obtain 
adequate  guarantees  for  the  future  safety  of  those  who  had  adhered 
to  the  defeated  side  and  the  following  words  found  a  place  on  paper: 

"  It  is  agreed  that  the  Congress  shall  urgently  recommend  it  to  the  Legislatures 
of  the  various  States  to  provide  for  the  restitution  of  all  estates,  rights  and  properties 
which  have  been  confiscated,  belonging  to  real  British  subjects  and  also  of  the  estates, 
rights  and  properties  of  persons  resident  in  districts  in  the  possession  of  His  Majesty's 
arms,  and  who  have  not  borne  arms  against  the  said  United  States  .  .  .  and  that 
Congress  should  also  earnestly  recommend  to  the  several  States  a  re-consideration  and 
revision  of  all  acts  or  laws  regarding  the  premises,  so  as  to  render  the  said  laws  or  acts 
perfectly  consistent,  not  only  with  justice  and  equity,  but  with  the  spirit  of  conciliation 
which,  on  the  return  of  the  blessings  of  peace,  should  universally  prevail.  " 

It  is  the  barest  statement  of  historic  fact  to  say  that  no  serious 
effort  was  ever  made  to  carry  out  this  agreement.  Persecution  of 
various  kinds  was  rampant,  thousands  were  driven  out  of  the  country 
and  were  happy  to  escape  with  their  lives  ;  while,  on  May  12th,  1784, 
the  Legislature  of  New  York  passed  an  Act  which  recapitulated  every 
possible  way  in  which  a  Loyalist  could  have  taken  part  in  the  war 
and  enacted  that  all  such  found  within  the  State  should  be  adjudged 
guilty  of  misprision  of  high  treason.  Meantime,  Sir  Guy  Carleton 
was  at  New  York,  and  before  he  evacuated  the  place  finally,  did 
everything  possible  to  transport  the  suffering  Loyalists  to  British 
territory.  Sir  Frederick  Haldimand,  Governor  of  Quebec,  and  John 
Parr,  of  Nova  Scotia,  did  their  best  to  receive  and  settle  them  on 
the  vast  vacant  lands  of  the  future  Dominion.  They  came  flocking 
in  thousands  to  the  Northern  land  where  still  floated  the  flag  they 
loved  so  well — in  ships  and  in  boats,  in  covered  waggons  or  on  foot 


THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS  157 

— until  there  were  eventually  some  4,500  settled  along  the  shores  of 
the  St.  Lawrence,  28,000  in  the  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia  of 
the  future,  a  few  in  Prince  Edward  Island,  some  thousands  in  the 
present  Eastern  Townships  of  Quebec,  and  probably  10,000  in  the 
Ontario  of  to-day.  They  came  without  money,  with  little  food  and 
few  resources,  with  no  experience  in  agriculture,  and  but  small  knowl- 
edge of  the  enormous  hardships  which  they  would  have  to  face. 

SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    LOYALIST    MIGRATION 

This  migration  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  striking  facts  of 
history.  It  was  not  the  exodus  of  some  great  horde  of  people  unable 
to  earn  their  living  in  a  European  country,  ignorant,  uncultured, 
unprepared  for  the  responsibilities  of  political  life  and  action.  It 
was  a  movement  at  least  as  significant  as  that  of  the  Pilgrim  Fathers. 
It  differed  from  the  latter  in  being  the  transfer  of  what  may  be 
termed,  for  want  of  a  better  designation,  the  prosperous  upper  class 
of  the  American  community  to  a  country  which  was  a  veritable 
wilderness.  Both  movements  were  made  for  conscience  sake ;  but 
one  was  largely  religious,  the  other  essentially  political,  or  patriotic. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  Loyalists  brought  to  the  making  of  Canada 
the  choicest  stock  the  Thirteen  Colonies  could  boast.  They  certainly 
did  contribute  an  army  of  leaders,  for  it  was  the  loftiest  heads  which 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  of  the  Legislatures, 
and  of  those  influenced  by  the  very  opposite  motives  of  cupidity  and 
an  honest  desire  to  purge  the  young  Republic  of  all  dangerous  elements. 

As  amongst  the  Cavaliers  of  England,  and,  indeed,  in  almost  all 
instances  of  civil  strife  in  all  countries,  it  was  the  most  influential 
Judges,  the  most  distinguished  lawyers,  the  most  highly  educated  of 
the  clergy,  the  Members  of  Council  in  the  various  Colonies,  the 
Crown  officials,  the  people  of  culture  and  social  position,  who,  in  this 
case,  stood  by  the  Crown.  There  were  many  notable  exceptions,  but 
not  more  than  enough  to  prove  the  rule.     In  this  connection  Professor 


158  THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS 

Hosmer  in  his  Life  of  Henry  Adams,  has  truly  said  that  "  the  Tories 
were  generally  people  of  substance,  their  stake  in  the  country  was 
even  greater  than  that  of  their  opponents,  their  patriotism  was  no 
doubt  to  the  full  as  fervent.  The  estates  of  the  Tories  were  among 
the  fairest,  their  stately  mansions  stood  upon  the  sightliest  hill-brows, 
the  richest  and  best-tilled  meadows  were  their  fames." 

Of  course,  they  were  not  all  of  this  class,  nor  did  all  the  hundred 
thousand  refugees  of  that  gloomy  time  come  to  the  British  Provinces. 
As  with  the  Huguenots  of  France,  over  a  hundred  years  before,  they 
scattered  over  all  countries — many  to  Great  Britain  or  the  West 
Indies.  Amongst  the  Judges  and  legislators,  the  clergymen  and  mer- 
chants, who  poured  out  of  the  ports  and  over  the  frontiers  of  the 
Republic  there  were  also  large  numbers  of  regular  soldiers  as  well  as 
of  Loyalist  volunteers,  many  yeomen  or  farmers,  many  handicrafts- 
men or  mechanics.  All  divisions  of  relig^ious  faith  were  there. 
Numbers  of  Church  of  England  people  settled  in  Upper  Canada 
under  the  ministrations  of  Dr.  John  Stuart.  Here  came  also  the 
enthusiastic  and  faithful  John  Ashbury  and  the  famous  pioneer  of 
Canadian  Methodism,  Barbara  Heck,  who  led  a  band  of  loyal  Metho- 
dists, to  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Quinte.  To  the  district  of  Glen- 
garry, in  Upper  Canada,  came  a  large  and  gallant  body  of  Scotch 
Catholics,  led  by  their  priests,  and  destined  to  take  no  small  part  in 
the  making  of  Ontario.  To  the  same  Province,  a  little  later,  migra- 
ted many  of  the  peaceful  Quakers  and  Mennonites  of  Pennsylvania. 
To  the  banks  of  the  Thames  came  large  numbers  of  the  Mohawk 
Indians  under  the  leadership  of  Joseph  Brant — loyal  survivors  of  the 
famous  Six  Nations.  Such  were  the  people,  in  a  general  sense,  who 
poured  into  the  northern  British  Provinces  to  found  and  establish  a 
new  British  state. 

Of  course,  the  migration  did  not  pass  without  comment,  or  action, 
in  England.     The  infraction  of  the  spirit  and  intent  of  the  Treaty  of 


THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS  159 

1 783,  and  the  weakness  of  the  Shelburne  Government  in  accepting  its 
vague  pledges  as  sufficient  protection,  provoked  angry  debates  in 
Parliament  and  forced  the  resignation  of  the  Ministry.  As  Lord  North 
well  said  in  the  House  :  "What  were  not  the  claims  of  those  who,  in 
conformity  to  their  allegiance,  their  cheerful  obedience  to  the  voice  of 
Parliament,  and  their  confidence  in  the  proclamations  of  our  Generals, 
espoused  with  the  hazard  of  their  lives  and  the  forfeiture  of  their 
properties,  the  cause  of  Great  Britain  ?  "  It  was  eventually  decided  to 
indemnify  the  Loyalists  for  actual  losses,  and  a  Royal  Commission  for 
this  purpose  was  established  in  1 783  which,  in  the  course  of  seven  years, 
investigated  2,291  claims  and  paid  out  to  the  sufferers  ^^3, 886,087 
sterling,  or  nearly  $19,000,000.  Large  grants  of  land  in  all  the 
Provinces  were  also  given  to  them,  and,  in  1 789,  the  title  or  affix  of 
"  U.  E.  L."  was  granted  by  the  Crown  as  a  special  honour  to  be 
borne  by  every  United  Empire  Loyalist,  and  his,  or  her,  descendant. 
Tools  and  implements  and  supplies  of  food  were  also  issued  from 
time  to  time. 

HARDSHIPS   OF    PIONEER    LIFE 

The  chief  centres  of  these  settlements  were  certain  parts  of 
Upper  Canada,  as  the  great  and  wild  country  to  the  immediate  west  of 
French  Canadian  Quebec  was  beginning  to  be  called,  the  Eastern 
Townships  of  the  present  Province  of  Quebec,  and  the  latter-day 
Province  of  New  Brunswick.  The  other  Maritime  Provinces  received 
a  considerable  number,  also.  To  a  great  extent  the  experience  of  one 
family,  or  of  one  group  of  settlers  was  the  experience  of  all.  Log 
cabins,  built  in  the  wilderness,  with  a  single  room  and  a  single  window, 
were  their  homes  ;  coarse  garments  spun  from  flax  or  hemp,  or  made 
from  the  hides  of  animals,  were  their  clothing — intermixed  on  rare 
occasions  with  the  silks  and  laces  and  ruffles  and  gorgeous  colours 
which  had  perhaps  flaunted  in  a  colonial  court,  or  graced  the  drawing- 
rooms  of  a  colonial  mansion  ;  furniture  was  made  from  the  roughest 


i6o  THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS 

of  wood  by  the  unskilful  axe  of  the  pioneer ;  the  task  of  procuring 
enough  of  Indian  corn  and  wild  rice  ,to  eat,  or  the  staving  off  of 
actual  starvation,  was  for  some  time  the  principal  occupation.  Around 
them  were  the  wild  animals  of  forest  life — wolves  and  bears  and 
lynxes.  In  winter  time  there  was  always  bitter  suffering  from  a  cold 
which  then  knew  little  cessation  and  from  a  snow  and  ice  which 
seemed  limitless  in  quantity  and  paralyzing  to  their  energies.  The 
latter  condition  also  isolated  their  dwellings  until  horses  and  sleighs 
came,  in  better  days,  to  help  them  bear  this  ordeal  of  life  in  the 
wilderness  Yet  they  were  not  absolutely  unhappy.  They  felt  deeply 
and  fervently  the  principles  which  had  driven  them  into  the  wilds  and, 
from  many  a  log  hut  dimly  lit  by  the  blaze  of  a  smoky  fire  came  the 
evening  hymn  of  "  God  Save  the  King,"  and  the  sound  of  the  clear- 
voiced  hope  that  their  privations  and  labours  might  end  in  the  building 
up  of  a  greater  and  better  commonwealth  than  the  one  they  had  left : 

"A  vast  Dominion  stretched  from  sea  to  sea, 
A  land  of  labour  but  of  sure  reward, 
A  land  of  corn  to  feed  the  world  withal, 
A  land  of  life's  best  treasures,  plenty,  peace, 
Content  and  freedom,  both  to  speak  and  do, 
A  land  of  men,  to  rule  with  sober  hand, 
As  loyal  as  were  their  fathers  and  as  free."* 

So  far  as  possible  they  had  settled  in  groups  and  helped  each 
other  with  the  early  and  arduous  tasks  of  clearing  the  forest  and 
chopping  the  timber  into  logs — with  axes  ill-suited  for  the  work  and 
with  results  not  much  better  suited  for  the  rough  and  ready  cabins 
which  they  had  to  build  for  shelter.  During  many  years  there  were 
no  villages,  or  shops,  or  newspapers,  or  roads,  or  churches,  or  schools, 
or  any  other  conveniences  of  the  cultivated  civilization  to  which  they 
had  been  accustomed.     Those  of  them  who  might  have  gone  into 

*  Lines  by  William  Kirby,  of  Niagara 


THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS  i6i 

Other  occupations  than  planting  and  reaping  grain,  or  clearing  timber, 
and  who  knew  something  of  industrial  labour  and  the  work  which 
might  have  brought  various  comforts  to  the  pioneers,  were  kept  from 
doing  so  by  the  hard  necessity  of  obtaining  food  from  the  soil.  The 
original  condition  of  humanity,  the  still  savage  conception  of  life  in 
many  countries,  was  here  illustrated  in  its  crudest  form ;  and  the  stern 
necessity  of  existence  was  to  obtain  sufficient  food  during  the  summer 
to  last  through  the  long,  cruel  winter.  As  it  was,  famine  came  to 
Upper  Canada  in  1787-8,  and  severe  hunger  was  added  to  the  hard- 
ships of  cold  and  the  dangers  of  wild  animal  life  around  the  settlers. 
Cornmeal  was  served  out  in  spoonfuls,  millet  seed  becarne  a  substi- 
tute for  wheat  fiour,  wheat  bran  was  greatly  valued,  ground  nuts  were 
sought  for  and  eaten,  boiled  oats  and  even  bark  and  birch  leaves  were 
acceptable.  Game  and  fish  when  caught,  which  was  not  very  fre- 
quently, had  to  be  eaten  without  salt,  and  tea  and  sugar  were  unknown 
for  years — until  the  latter  was  replaced  by  maple  sugar  and  syrup. 

This  season,  however,  was  the  climax  of  privation  and  trouble. 
Progress,  thereafter,  was  sure  and  steady.  More  settlers  came  in  and, 
as  time  passed,  included  a  large  number  of  what  were  called  "later 
Loyalists  " — Americans  who  were  loyal  at  heart  but  had  managed  to 
keep  from  being  publicly  obnoxious  to  the  Continentalists.  They 
now  took  advantage  of  various  openings  and  came  across  the  fron- 
tier in  huge  caravans,  with  their  families  and  flocks  and  home  com- 
forts. From  1792  to  1796  Lieutenant-Governor  J.  Graves  Simcoe, 
of  Upper  Canada,  encouraged  this  species  of  immigrant,  gave  new'  set- 
tlers large  grants  and  did  everything  to  encourage  a  still  greater  influx 
of  population.  Gradually  the  increasing  migration  had  its  effect  upon 
the  isolation  of  the  pioneers  and  the  absence  of  comforts  in  their 
homes.  More  varied  occupations  became  possible.  Carpenters  and 
painters,  shoe-makers  and  mill-wrights,  started  their  industries.  Better 
houses  were  erected,  mills  became  more  and  more  numerous,  small 


i62  THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS 

general  shops  were  opened  and  supplied  with  goods,  over  hundreds 
of  miles  of  waterway,  from  Quebec,  while,  above  all,  military  roads 
were  established  under  guidance  of  the  energetic  and  far-seeing  Simcoe 
and  branched  out  from  his  village  capital  at  York  (Toronto)  in 
various  directions. 

Cattle  and  horses  were  once  more  to  be  obtained  and  the  sleigh- 
bells  of  the  settlers  were  heard  in  winter  ringing  through  the  silent 
forest  as  they  passed  from  one  cottage  to  another.  Log  school- 
houses  arose,  here  and  there,  with  miserable  little  urchins  perched  on 
high  seats  without  a  back  and  with  their  legs  dangling  in  mid-air,  while 
receiving  instruction  from  the  crudest  and  rudest  type  of  the  travelling 
teacher.  The  process  of  progress  was  necessarily  slow  but  it  was  now 
sure.  As  the  years  passed  on  to  the  period,  in  1 8 1 2—1 5  ,when  their  cour- 
age and  loyalty  were  to  be  again  tested,  many  of  the  Loyalist  gentry  had 
reached  a  position  of  comparative  comfort  once  more  ;  most  of  the 
poorer  classes  were  able  to  live  without  actual  privation.  But  there 
was  no  wealth  or  luxury,  no  development  of  artistic  tastes  and  culture, 
except  in  the  very  simplest  of  forms. 

Meanwhile,  in  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia,  in  Prince 
Edwarci  Island  and  Cape  Breton,  the  Loyalists  had  come  and  taken 
possession.  There  were  some  slight  differences  in  the  nature  of  their 
settlements  and  those  of  Upper  Canada.  They  seem  to  have  stayed 
more  together,  to  have  avoided  something  of  the  painful  isolation  of 
their  brother  Colonists,  to  have  benefited  by  their  proximity  to  the 
sea-coast  and  to  England,  to  have  suffered  less  from  cold  and  to  ha\Je 
largely  avoided  the  horrors  of  starvation.  There  were,  of  course, 
exceptions,  such  as  the  record  of  the  first  eight  hundred  settlers  in 
Cape  Breton  reveals.  Towns  grew  apace  and  the  whole  life  of  these 
Provinces  became  influenced  in  the  most  overwhelming  manner  by  the 
influx  of  the  Loyalists.  New  Brunswick  received  its  type  and  char- 
acter from  them  entirely,  while  Nova  Scotia,  though  an  old  and  historic 


DR.  ALEXANDRE  ANTONIN  TACHE 

Archbishop  of  St.  Boniface,  1871-95 


<l"« 

1 

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£ 

THE   REV.  DR.  SAMUEL  S.  NELLES 


THE  REV.  DR.  R.  A.  FYFE 


THE  MOST  REV.  DR.  FRANCIS  FULFORD 
ulshop  of  Montreal  and  Metropolitan  of  Canada 


THE  LOYALIST  PIONEERS  165 

region  with  a  considerable  Acadian  population  and  the  advantage  of 
having  preserved  the  military  centre  of  Halifax  during  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  was  largely  affected.  In  the  Eastern  Townships  of  Quebec 
the  Loyalists  found  local  conditions  more  distasteful  than  distant 
hardships  and,  disliking  the  absence  of  constitutional  rule,  many 
migrated  again  into  Upper  Canada  and  joined  their  brethren  in  the 
great  Lake  country. 

To  all  the  Provinces  these  American  refugees  carried  their  views 
of  government ;  intense  feelings  of  loyalty  which  had  been  bred  into 
their  very  bones  by  persecution  and  exile  ;  strong  belief  in  monarchy 
as  the  best  and  truest  form  of  government ;  a  love  of  country  which 
grew  with  the  hardships  endured  so  patiently ;  a  feeling  that  they  had 
the  right  to  control  and  guide,  in  days  to  come,  the  destinies,  the  affairs, 
the  policy  of  the  Provinces  they  were  founding  and  maintaining 
through  stress  and  storm.  Out  of  this  natural  sentiment  came  many 
complications  in  the  future  and  much  political  turmoil.  But  that  is 
another  story. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
Early  Constitutional  Development 

THE  form  of  government  in  New  France  was  at  once  autocratic 
and  bureaucratic  and  ecclesiastical.  The  King  interfered  wh^n 
he  pleased  and  changed  or  adjusted  matters  as  he  saw  fit. 
The  Governors  were  usually  soldiers  and,  in  the  face  of  constant  dan- 
ger from  Iroquois  or  English,  naturally  ruled  in  an  arbitrary  manner, 
though  often  without  that  precision  of  plan  and  action  which  would 
have  marked  the  able  military  administrator.  Champlain  and  Fron- 
tenac,  Denonville  and  Vaudreuil,  constituted  at  times,  however,  the 
whole  government  of  the  Colony  in  their  own  persons. 

SYSTEM  OF  GOVERNMENT  IN  FRENCH  CANADA 

With  the  Governor-General  was  an  Intendant  who  guided,  more 
or  less,  the  finances  of  the  country  and  the  matters  of  administrative 
detail.  When  the  Intendant  was  a  strong  man  and  the  Governor  a 
weak  one  the  former  for  good  or  ill  controlled  the  State.  Jean  Talon, 
who  filled  the  position  in  1665-68  and  for  five  years  following  1670, 
was  the  creator  of  the  constitution  of  New  France — such  as  it  was.  A 
strong  organizer,  an  honest  administrator,  he  did  as  much  good  to  the 
infant  state  as  the  last  Intendant,  the  corrupt  and  crafty  Francois  Bigot, 
did  harm.  Intimately  associated  with  these  officials  was  the  Bishop.  At 
times  he  was  the  greatest  of  the  three,  and  the  most  influential.  Laval, 
St.  Vallier  and  Pontbriand  wielded  in  their  day  a  combined  ecclesias- 
tical and  civil  power  in  French  Canada  which  was  not  dissimilar  to  the 
place  held  by  the  Princes  of  their  Church  in  mediaeval  Europe. 

In  1663,  Louis  XIV.  created  what  was  at  first  called  a  Sovereign 
Council,  and  afterwards  the  Supreme  Council,  as  the  governing 
166 


EARL  Y  CONSTITUTIONAL  DE VELOPMENT  1 67 

body  of  his  American  possessions.  It  was  composed  of  the  Gover- 
nor-General, who  had  charge  of  all  military  matters,  the  Bishop, 
who  was  supreme  in  all  ecclesiastical  concerns — and  many  which 
would  now  be  termed  civil  ones — and  the  Intendant,  who  was  Presi- 
dent of  the  Council,  with  a  casting  vote  and  with  complete  control 
over  police,  trade,  justice,  and  other  departments  of  civil  administra- 
tion. With  these  practically  supreme  officials  were  associated  six,  and 
afterwards  twelve  Councillors,  who  were  chosen  from  amongst  the 
leading  residents.  Under  this  system,  and  up  to  the  conquest,  the 
Government  of  the  colony  fluctuated  and  merged  into  differing  degrees 
of  military  administration,  class  supremacy,  ecclesiastical  control,  and 
financial  manipulation. 

ESTABLISHMENT    OF    FRENCH    MILITARY    RULE 

Its  leading  objects  were  the  establishment  of  French  military  rule 
over  as  wide  a  space  as    possible   between    Hudson's    Bay  and   the 
regions  of  the  Ohio  Valley  and  the  Mississippi ;  the  development  of 
the  fur  trade,  with  profitable  returns  to  the  numerous  French  inter- 
ests in  that  connection  ,   the  extension  of   religion  to  the   Indians  and 
the  expansion  of  the  power  of  the  Church  ;   the  eventual  hemming 
in  of  the  English  settlements  upon  the  Atlantic  by  a  background  of 
French  forts  and  military  stations  down  through  the  heart  of    the 
continent.     Constitutional   machinery,   in  a  popular  sense,  was  not 
required  for  such  objects,  and  in  fact  proved  far  from  beneficial  in  this 
respect,  and  in  even    a   restricted    form,    to    the    English    Thirteen 
Colonies.     The  scattered  local  centres  of  the  latter  were  governed  in 
those  days  in  a  detached  and  hap-hazard  way  and  with   a  democratic 
freedom  which  was  not  conducive  to  united  military  action  or  concen- 
trated policy. 

Under  early  British  administration  the  change  in  New  France,  or 
Quebec  as  it  was  now  termed,  was  very  slight.  From  1 764  to  1 774  the 
military  influence  was  practically  supreme,  and  the  power  possessed  by 


i68  EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

Lord  Amherst,  General  Murray  and  Sir  Guy  Carleton  was  almost 
autocratic.  In  the  latter  year  came  the  Quebec  Act,  and  a  general 
adjustment  of  the  government  to  conditions  which  had  developed 
amongst  the  French  of  the  Lower  Province  and  the  new  Loyalist 
settlers  of  the  Upper  Province  as  a  result  of  the  decade  of  British  rule. 

THE    QUEBEC    ACT 

The  origin  of  this  important  legislation  was  in  the  relations 
between  the  French  majority  in  Quebec  and  the  English  minority  ; 
its  evolution  was  in  the  mind  and  policy  of  Guy  Carleton,  Lord  Dor- 
chester ;  its  immediate  result  was  the  saving  of  British  America  to 
the  Crown  during  the  American  Revolution  ;  its  ultimate  consequence 
was  the  French  Province  of  modern  times  with  full  liberty  of  laws, 
language  and  religion.  At  the  Conquest,  and  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris, 
these  rights  had  been  formally  guaranteed  in  a  religious  sense  to  the 
65,000  inhabitants  of  Quebec  (who  by  1774  had  increased  to  150,000) 
in  the  declaration  that  "the  worship  of  their  religion,  according  to  the 
rites  of  the  Romish  Church,  as  far  as  the  laws  of  Great  Britain  per- 
mit "  was  to  be  allowed.  In  practice,  also,  the  various  religious  Orders 
had  been  given  full  freedom  of  action  and  exemption  from  taxation. 
This  generosity,  however,  was  not  altogether  palatable  to  the  small 
English  population,  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  habitants  did  not 
understand  the  English  Civil  law  though  willing  enough  to  accept 
English  Criminal  law.  The  result  of  a  not  very  aggressive  effort  to 
substitute  the  laws  of  the  conqueror  for  those  of  the  conquered  had 
been  dissatisfaction  and  a  great  deal  of  confusion. 

As  the  years  passed  on,  too,  the  menacing  storm-cloud  of  trouble 
in  the  Thirteen  Colonies  grew  dark,  and  it  became  eminently  desir- 
able to  conciliate  the  French-Canadians  and  correct  every  possible 
grievance.  The  territory  which  was  administered  at  this  time  under 
the  general  designation  of  Quebec  was  considerably  different  from 
that  of  later  days  and  was  greatly  restricted  in  extent — although  it 


EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  169 

became  enlarged  beyond  recognition  by  the  Quebec  Act  itself.  By 
the  King's  Proclamation  of  1763,  Governor  Murray  had  been  author- 
ized to  "summon  and  call  general  Assemblies  of  the  free-holders  and 
planters"  as  soon  as  the  "  situation  and  circumstances "  of  the  new 
Province  would  permit.  Naturally  and  properly  he  was  in  no  hurry 
to  introduce  the  apple  of  political  discord  and  the  difficulties  of  ani 
elective  system  amongst  people  imbued  with  French  autocratic  habits 
of  government  and  utterly  ignorant  of  British  ideas  and  principles. 
He  was  also  occupied  with  the  more  immediately  important  work  of 
arranging  the  judicial  and  administrative  functions  of  the  new  Gov- 
ernment. 

With  the  coming  of  Carleton,  in  1768,  a  new  constitutional  stage 
in  affairs  was  developed  and  conditions  already  indicated  demanded 
the  attention  of  a  man  who  is  one  of  the  heroic  characters  of  Canadian 
history.  His  policy  during  this  period  included  the  enlargement 
of  the  area  of  Quebec  so  as  to  bring  within  its  bounds  as  much  as 
possible  of  the  regions  once  claimed  by  its  French  rulers  ;  the  cen- 
tralization of  government  in  its  various  phases  under  the  control  of  the 
Crown  or,  in  other  words,  in  his  own  hands ;  the  obtaining  of  Roman 
Catholic  sympathy  and  the  powerful  support  of  the  Church  for  British 
connection  and  government  in  the  inevitable  troubles  which  he  saw 
to  be  coming  from  the  New  England  and  Atlantic  Colonies ;  the 
amelioration  of  local  conditions  so  as  to  make  the  French  settlers 
satisfied  with  local  laws  ;  the  avoidance  of  unnecessary  or  unpopular 
taxation.  Fortunately  for  Great  Britain  and  the  Canada  of  the 
future  he  was  given  a  tolerably  free  hand  and  would  have  held  a  still 
stronger  position  and  a  greater  place  in  the  history  of  the  Continent 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  fatuous  littleness  of  Lord  George  Germaine. 
In  1769,  after  a  close  study  of  the  situation,  he  returned  to  England 
bent  upon  obtaining  the  legislation  afterwards  expressed  in  the 
Quebec  Act.  In  the  persistent  work  of  the  next  few  years  he  received 
10 


l7o  EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

Strong  and  substantial  aid  from  Chief  Justice  Hey  of  Quebec,  and 
from  Francois  Maseres,  the  Attorney-General  of  the  Province. 

By  the  terms  of  the  Act  the  Province  of  Quebec  was  defined  as 
extending  southward  to  the  Ohio,  westward  to  the  Mississippi,  north- 
ward to  the  boundaries  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  territory,  and  eastward 
to  the  borders  of  Nova  Scotia.  A  Council  was  to  be  appointed  con- 
sisting of  such  persons  resident  in  the  Province,  "  not  exceeding 
twenty-three  or  less  than  seventeen,  as  His  Majesty,  his  heirs  and 
successors  may  be  pleased  to  appoint."  This  body  was  to  have  author- 
ity to  make  laws  for  "  the  peace,  welfare  and  good  government  of  the 
Province,  with  the  consent  of  His  Majesty's  Governor,  or  in  his  absence 
of  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  or  Commander-in-Chief  for  the  time 
being."  It  was  further  provided  that  the  Council  should  not  have 
power  to  impose  taxes  on  the  people  of  Quebec  except  for  ordinary 
local  public  works ;  that  every  Ordinance  or  law  was  to  be  subject  to 
disallowance  by  the  King  within  six  months  ;  that  laws  affecting  reli- 
gion, or  imposing  severe  penalties  of  any  kind,  must  have  the  Royal 
sanction  before  becoming  operative  ;  that  the  King  should  retain  the 
right  to  establish  Courts  of  law  ;  that  nothing  in  the  Act  should  be 
construed  as  repealing  or  affecting  the  British  enactments  already 
passed  for  "prohibiting,  restraining  or  regulating  the  trade  or  com- 
merce of  His  Majesty's  Colonies  or  Plantations  in  America,"  The 
vital  point  of  the  whole  measure  was,  however,  in  its  religious 
clauses. 

In  the  Montreal  Articles  of  Capitulation,  signed  on  September 
8,  1 760,  by  General  Amherst  and  M.  de  Vandreuil,  entire  freedom  of 
worship  had  been  promised  to  Roman  Catholics  and  the  Communities 
of  Nuns  and  Priests  were  to  be  maintained  in  their  properties  and 
privileges.  The  Treaty  of  Paris,  three  years  later,  granted  "the 
liberty  of  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  to  the  inhabitants  of  Canada  " 
and  gave  them  permission  to  worship  according  to  the  rites  of  their 


EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  171 

Church,  "  so  far  as  the  laws  of  Great  Britain  permit."  This  latter 
clause  could,  of  course,  have  been  read  so  as  to  invalidate  all  privi- 
leges and  freedom  of  worship,  but  this  was  not  done.  Now,  by 
the  terms  of  the  Quebec  Act,  not  only  was  the  former  religious 
liberty  maintained,  but  the  Roman  Catholic  Clergy  were  authorized 
"  to  hold,  receive  and  enjoy  their  accustomed  dues  and  rights  with 
respect  to  such  persons  only  as  shall  profess  the  said  religion,"  while 
"  ecclesiastical  persons  and  officers  "  were  relieved  from  the  necessity 
of  taking  the  Elizabethan  Oath  of  Supremacy  and  were  given  instead 
a  simple  oath  of  allegiance.  Religious  Orders  and  Communities 
were  exempted  from  the  guarantee  of  properties  and  possessions  but 
with  the  exception  of  the  Society  of  Jesus,  which  had  been  suppressed 
in  1773  by  Pope  Clement  IV,  "with  their  functions,  houses,  and 
institutions,"  the  exception  was  allowed  to  remain  inoperative. 

Incidentally,  and  in  order  to  appease  the  small  Protestant  popu- 
lation of  the  Colony  where  Roman  Catholicism  was  thus  practically 
established  as  a  Church  in  alliance  with  the  State  it  was  specified  that 
out  of  the  dues  and  rights  referred  to  above  the  King  might  provide 
for  "  the  maintenance  and  support  of  the  Protestant  Clergy  "  in  the 
Province.  The  principles  and  practice  of  the  French  Civil  law  were 
in  some  vague  measure  guaranteed  to  the  inhabitants  while  those  of 
the  English  Criminal  law  were  expressly  established.  Such  was  the 
Quebec  Act  of  1774.  It  was  by  no  means  a  perfect  measure,  nor  did 
it  give  complete  satisfaction  either  at  the  time  or  afterwards.  But  it 
carried  the  Province  through  a  period  of  trouble  and  perplexity  and 
created  a  substantial  basis  for  fuller  constitutional  action  along  more 
extended  lines. 

The  controversies  surrounding  this  enactment  in  England  were 
as  interesting  as  they  were  extensive.  On  May  26,  1774,  Sir  Guy 
Carleton,  Chief  Justice  Hey,  Attorney-General  Maseres  and  M.  de 
Lotbiniere  had  appeared  before  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons  to 


17a  EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENl 

discuss  and  explain  the  proposed  legislation.  Carleton  declared  that 
there  was  no  desire  for  an  Assembly  amongst  the  French-Canadians, 
that  there  were  only  360  Protestant  families  in  the  country,  all  told, 
and  that  there  was  not  enough  representative  men  to  warrant  the 
creation  of  such  a  body.  He  did  not  favour  a  French  Assembly.  M. 
Maseres  stated  that  the  French  in  Canada  had  no  clear  ideas  regard- 
ing government,  indulged  in  few  theoretical  speculations  and  would 
be  content  with  any  form  given  them  so  long  as  it  was  well  adminis- 
tered. Chief  Justice  Hey  wanted  to  see  the  laws  blended  with  those 
of  England — in  other  words  the  abolition  of  special  race  and  religious 
privileges.  M.  de  Lotbiniere  seemed  to  think  that  if  the  French 
Seigneurial  tenure  system  was  maintained  and  the  Seigneurs  admit- 
ted to  some  kind  of  a  Council  the  people  would  be  fairly  satisfied. 

In  this  connection  the  special  reports  of  the   British  Attorney- 
General   Thurlow,   and   Solicitor-General  Wedderburn,  had  already 
been  submitted  to  Parliament.     Both  the  writers  were  eminent  men^ 
The  former  became  celebrated  as  Lord  High  Chancellor  and  Baron 
Thurlow,  the  latter  as   Lord  High  Chancellor,  Baron  Loughborough 
and  Earl   of    Rosslyn.     Thurlow  believed   in  non-interference  with 
existing  Civil    laws,  customs,  manners,  private   rights,  minor  public 
affairs  and  religious  privileges.     Wedderburn  favoured  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Council  with  restricted  powers  in  the  making  of  laws,  the 
retention  of    religious   privileges,  the  protection  of  the  priests,  the 
toleration  of    Monastic  Orders — with  the  exception  of  the  Jesuits. 
Marryott,  the  Advocate-General,  whose  report  did   not  appear  until 
after  the  passage  of  the  Act,  very  wisely  urged  the  regulation  of  the 
Courts  of  Justice,  the  definition  and  declaration  of  the  Civil  law,  and 
the  regulation  of  the  revenue.     He  believed  in  dual  language  in  the 
Courts  but  did  not  approve  of  any  formal  establishment  or  recogni- 
tion of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.     It  should,  he  thought,  merely  be 
tolerated. 


174  EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

It  won  for  England  the  powerful  alliance  and  support  of  the 
Church  of  Rome  in  the  Colony  and  the  support  of  its  adherents  in 
the  War  of  1812 — long  after  the  measure  itself  had  been  replaced 
and  extended  by  the  Act  of  1791.  But  it  failed  as  a  means  for  really 
efficient  administration  of  Provincial  affairs.  It  did  not  conciliate  the 
natural  and  antagonistic  feelings  of  the  small  body  of  the  English 
settlers  toward  the  large  French  section  of  the  population.  It  did  not 
sufficiently  distinguish  between  the  French  and  English  laws  and  define 
which  was  to  be  maintained  and  which  discarded.  It  did  not  teach  the 
Judges  how  to  bring  order  out  of  legal  chaos  and  administer  justice 
under  a  system  which  they  did  not  understand  the  limits  of.  It  did  not 
make  easier  the  cogiplications  which  naturally  arose  when  thousands  of 
American  Loyalists  settled  in  the  Upper  part  of  the  Province  and  found 
themselves  governed  by  a  mixed  English  and  French  system. 

Meanwhile,  Sir  Guy  Carleton  had  become  Lord  Dorchester  and 
was  sent  back  to  the  Province  which  he  had  done  so  much  to  hold 
for  Great  Britain  and  to  mould  into  its  existing  shape.  He  arrived 
in  1 786,  as  Governor-General  of  all  British  America,  and  seems  to 
have  seen  at  once  that  some  modification  in  the  Quebec  Act  was 
necessary  under  the  new  circumstances  which  had  arisen.  In  response 
to  a  request  from  the  Colonial  Secretary  for  a  report  on  the  subject. 
Lord  Dorchester  declared  that  any  change  in  the  constitution  should 
be  gradual,  that  a  firm  and  paternal  administration  was  the  best  cure 
for  present  troubles,  that  the  Loyalist  settlement  in  the  west  was  not 
yet  ready  for  anything  higher  than  county  government,  and  that  a 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  ability  should  be  at  once  selected  for  the 
Upper  part  of  the  Province,  In  case  the  division  of  the  Province  of 
Quebec  in  a  definite  form  were  decided  upon,  he  submitted  certain 
suggestions  as  to  the  line  of  separation.  In  1 789  the  policy  was  settled, 
and,  two  years  later,  the  new  Constitutional  Act  passed  theBritish  Par- 
liament after  its  terms  had  been  fully  approved  by  Lord  Dorchester. 


EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  175 

By  this  new  measure  Quebec  was  divided  into  two  distinct 
Provinces,  with  a  Lieutenant-Governor,  a  Legislative  Council  and 
an  Assembly  in  each.  The  Council  was  to  consist  of  not  less  than 
seven  members  appointed  for  life  by  the  Governor-General,  or 
Lieutenant-Governor,  and  with  hereditary  functions  under  certain  con- 
ditions. The  Assembly  was  to  consist  of  not  less  than  fifty  members 
in  Lower  Canada  and  sixteen  in  Upper  Canada.  The  Governor  had 
power  to  give,  or  reserve,  or  refuse  the  King's  assent  to  any  measure 
passed  by  the  Council  and  Assembly,  while  the  King-in-Council  could 
disallow  any  Bill  within  two  years  of  its  passage.  A  Court  of  Civil 
Jurisdiction  in  each  Province  was  to  be  established.  The  Governor 
was  given  power  to  allot  lands  and  rent  therefrom  for  the  support  of 
the  Protestant  clergy  in  both  Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  and,  with  the 
advice  of  his  Executive  Council,  to  erect  parsonages  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia.  No  legislation  under  the  Act 
was  to  interfere  with  Parliamentary  prohibitions  or  duties  regarding 
commerce  and  navigation. 

OBJECTIONS   TO    THE   CONSTITUTIONAL    ACT 

Some  of  the  local  objections  to  this  measure  were  natural ;  others, 
in  the  retrospect  of  history,  seem  very  curious.  Adam  Lymburner,  a 
respected  merchant  of  Quebec  City,  represented  before  the  bar  of  the 
House  of  Commons  the  views  of  many  English-speaking  settlers. 
They  wanted  the  absolute  repeal  of  the  Quebec  Act  and  a  new  con- 
stitution which  would  limit  the  power  of  the  French-Canadians  and 
increase  their  own.  They  disliked  the  proposed  division  of  territory, 
he  declared,  because  if  the  policy  were  ever  found  to  work  injuriously 
the  Provinces  could  not  be  re-united  ;  and  because  the  new  Province 
of  Upper  Canada  "  would  be  entirely  cut-off  from  all  communication 
with  Great  Britain,"  and  there  would  thus  be  a  gradual  weakening  in 
the  existing  ties  of  loyalty  and  attachment  to  the  Mother-country. 
He   opposed  the   clause   conferring   hereditary  membership  in    the 


176  EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

Legislative  Council,  and  concluded  his  evidence  by  declaring  that  the 
Falls  of  Niagara  were  "an  insurmountable  barrier  to  the  transporta- 
tion of  produce  "  and  that  Quebec  was  nearly  the  centre  of  the  culti- 
vable part  of  the  Province.  On  May  6,  1791,  there  commenced  a 
debate  in  the  Imperial  Commons  which  has  become  historical  on 
account  of  the  controversy  between  Pitt  and  Fox  and  Burke. 

It  was  then  the  day  of  blood  and  terror  in  France  as  well  as  of 
the  dominance  in  the  British  Parliament  of  an  eloquence  which  has 
never  since  been  equalled.  Naturally,  this  conferring  of  constitutional 
liberties  upon  the  French  of  Quebec  stirred  up  the  friends  and  foes 
of  the  French  Revolution  in  Parliament  and  caused  some  great 
speeches,  Burke  declared  that  a  new  light  had  arisen  upon  the 
horizon  of  France.  The  French  Academies,  uniting  with  French 
Clubs,  had  lit  the  blaze  of  liberty  with  the  torch  of  sedition  and  had 
diffused  the  flame  of  freedom  by  the  help  of  La  Lanterne.  He 
seemed  to  fear  that  there  was  an  attempt  in  the  proposed  Act  to 
graft  some  of  the  principles  of  the  French  constitution  upon  that  of 
the  Colony  and  he  strongly  advocated  the  adoption  of  British  prin- 
ciples only. 

Fox  denounced  everything  and  everybody  and  especially  the 
clause  of  the  Bill  which  applied  the  hereditary  principle  to  the  Legis- 
lative Council.  Pitt,  with  all  his  powerful  personality  and  influence, 
defended  the  measure  and  eventually  carried  it  through  the  House. 
He  expressed  his  wish  to  give  Canada  as  perfect  a  constitution  as 
possible — a  mixture  of  monarchy,  aristocracy  and  democracy  such  as 
they  had  in  Great  Britain  herself.  It  is  apparent  from  these  debates 
that  the  British  statesmen  of  that  critical  period  were  warmly  appre- 
ciative of  the  loyalty  of  the  French-Canadians  during  the  American 
Revolution  and  of  their  conservatism  in  connection  with  the  still 
more  menacing  storm  in  France.  Pitt,  himself,  had  an  idea  that  the 
more  the  Colonies  in  British  America  could  be  kept  apart  the  better 


EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  177 

it  would  be  for  their  loyalty,  and  he,  therefore,  strongly  favoured  the 
perpetuation  of  French  laws,  institutions  and  language  in  Lower 
Canada  with  that  object  in  view.  Union  amongst  the  Thirteen 
Colonies  had  produced  war  and  independence  ;  union  amongst  the 
remaining  British  Colonies  would  certainly  be  dangerous  !  When 
such  was  the  belief  of  England's  greatest  political  leader  in  1791 
there  is  certainly  some  ground  for  excusing  the  mistakes  of  King 
George  a  quarter  of  a  century  before. 

After  the  Bill  had  passed  both  Houses  it  was  duly  proclaimed  by 
the  King-in-Council  on  August  24,  1791,  and  the  Provinces  of  Upper 
and  Lower  Canada  created.  Lord  Dorchester  was,  of  course,  still 
Governor-General,  or  Governor-in-Chief,  as  the  title  went  for  many 
years  after  this  time.  Major-General  Sir  Alvred  Clarke  was  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  the  Lower  Province,  Major-General  J.  Graves  Simcoe  of 
the  Upper.  Amongst  those  who  were  present  at  Quebec  in  Decem- 
ber of  this  year  during  the  inauguration  of  the  new  constitution  was 
H.  R.  H.  Prince  Edward — afterwards  Duke  of  Kent  and  father  of 
Queen  Victoria.  Newark,  afterwards  Niagara,  was  the  first  capital 
of  the  infant  Province  of  Upper  Canada,  and  then  York — afterwards 
Toronto — was  founded  by  Simcoe  for  this  purpose  upon  the  shores 
of  Lake  Ontario  and  amidst  a  background  of  deep  and  gloomy  forest. 
His  earliest  preference,  however,  had  been  a  place  on  the  Thames,  in 
the  heart  of  the  western  wilderness  and  far  removed  from  danger  of 
American  attack,  which  afterwards  became  the  City  of  London. 
Simcoe's  first  Assembly  met  at  Newark  on  September  17,  1792,  and 
the  first  Parliament  of  Lower  Canada  at  Quebec  on  December  17th 
followinof. 

The  conditions  prevalent  in  the  two  communities  at  this  time 
were  very  different.  The  Upper  Province  was  peopled  by  British 
Loyalists  trained  in  Colonial  self-government,  so  far  as  it  was  under- 
stood in  those  days,   and  saturated  with  faith   in  the  freedom  and 


178  EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT 

fairness  of  British  institutions.  They  had  English  laws  and  their  lands 
were  held  on  free-hold  tenure.  They  had  a  Governor  who  was  one 
of  those  clear-sighted,  determined  characters  so  essential  to  a  period 
and  conditions  when  the  mould  of  nationality  is  not  formed  and  when 
much  depends  upon  the  initiative  of  those  who  possess  authority.  He 
was  British  and  loyal  to  the  heart's  core,  had  fought  in  command  of 
the  Queen's  Rangers  of  Virginia  during  the  Revolution,  and  fully 
expected  to  fight  in  another  struggle  of  the  same  kind.  During  his 
brief  four  years  of  power,  he^  in  fact,  warned  the  Home  authorities 
that  another  war  with  the  United  States  was  inevitable  before  matters 
finally  settled  down.  He  prepared  in  such  small  ways  as  he  could  for 
the  possibility,  built  roads  throughout  the  wilderness  suited  for  the 
transport  of  troops,  issued  a  proclamation  offering  freer  grants  of 
land  to  all  Loyalists  still  remaining  in  the  States,  and  was  successful 
in  obtaining  large  numbers.  Incidentally  he  did  much,  by  pressure 
upon  the  Imperial  authorities,  to  establish  the  Church  of  England  in 
the  Province  and  something  to  help  education  and  to  lay  the  first 
foundations  of  municipal  institutions. 

Lower  Canada,  on  the  other  hand,  was  essentially  a  French 
Province.  It  had  a  British  Governor,  an  Assembly  after  the  English 
pattern,  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  the  Criminal  law  of  England. 
But  this  was  all.  Lands  were  still  held  on  the  old  French  feudal 
tenure,  although  to  suit  incoming  settlers  the  freehold  tenure  was 
allowed  under  special  request.  French  law  in  civil  matters  was  para- 
mount as  were  French  customs  and  language.  The  religion  which 
has  been  identified  with  French-Canadian  life  was  practically  estab- 
lished as  a  State  Church  at  the  very  time  that  its  influence  was  being 
destroyed  and  its  position  utterly  undermined  in  the  Mother-land  of  the 
Canadian  habitant.  As  in  Upper  Canada,  however,  a  large  portion  of 
the  wild  lands  of  the  Province  was  set  apart  for  the  support  of  the  Pro- 
testant clergy.       The  people  were    ignorant,   entirely    untrained   in 


EARLY  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOPMENT  179 

constitutional  doctrine  or  practice,  and  really  unable  for  some  years 
to  grasp  the  meaning  of  an  elective  Assembly.  When  they  did  so  the 
results  were  not  exactly  beneficial. 

THE    MARITIME    PROVINCES 

Meanwhile,  the  Maritime  Provinces  were  making  rapid  progress. 
The  introduction  of  the  Loyalists  had  given  a  new  meaning  to  the 
staid  and  sober  political  conditions  of  Acadian  life.  As  far  back  as 
1758  there  had  been  free  institutions  and  the  first  representative 
Assembly  formed  on  Canadian  soil  had  begun  to  sit  at  Halifax  in 
October  of  that  year.  The  Province  of  Nova  Scotia  then  included 
the  New  Brunswick  of  the  future  and  the  two  Islands  along  the 
coast.  But,  with  the  coming  of  the  great  Loyalist  migration,  a 
re-adjustment  was  found  necessary  and  New  Brunswick,  in  1784, 
became  a  Province  with  an  Assembly  and  a  Governor  of  its  own — 
Colonel  Thomas  Carleton,  brother  of  Lord  Dorchester.  It  had  pros- 
pered greatly  under  the  heavy  preferential  duties  which  England 
imposed  in  favour  of  its  lumber  ;  and  its  rivers  were  choked  with 
floating  timber,  its  saw-mills  crowded  with  products  for  ship-building 
and  manufacturing. 

In  Nova  Scotia  a  sturdy  and  able  Loyalist,  an  old-fashioned  and 
honourable  Tory,  in  the  person  of  Sir  John  Wentworth  was  Governor 
from  1792  to  1808.  He  helped  Bishop  Inglisto  found  the  University 
of  King's  College  and  to  vigorously  uphold  the  union  of  State  and 
Church.  Incidentally,  the  war  with  France  had  caused  a  great  dis- 
play of  patriotism  amongst  the  militia  and  the  enrollment  of  the 
Royal  Nova  Scotia  Regiment ;  while  the  presence  of  H.  R.  H.  the 
Duke  of  Kent  at  Halifax,  as  Commander  of  the  forces  in  British 
America,  had  made  that  city  a  brilliant  social  centre  and,  through  the 
personal  popularity  of  the  Duke,  had  caused  the  name  of  the  Island 
of  St.  John  to  be  changed  to  Prince  Edward.  Population,  meantime, 
had  grown  greatly  throughout  all  the   Provinces.     In  179 1    it  was 


i8o  EARL  Y  CONSm  UTIONAL  DE VELOPMENT 

about  20,000  In  Upper  Canada,  150,000  in  Lower  Canada,  and  50,000 
in  the  Provinces  by  the  sea.  By  1806  these  figures  had  grown  to 
about  70,000  in  Upper  Canada,  250,000  in  Lower  Canada,  and  over 
100,000  in  the  Atlantic  Provinces. 

With  the  expansion  of  population,  the  influx  of  new  people  with 
fresh  ideas,  or  old  principles,  and  the  friction  of  wider  discussion, 
came  controversies  of  serious  importance  and  the  seeds  of  a  situation 
which  was  eventually  to  destroy  the  Act  of  1791  and  to  re-create  the 
constitutions  of  all  the  Provinces.  Roughly  speaking,  the  Constitu- 
tional Act  was  fairly  successful  in  its  operation  in  the  Canadas  up  to 
the  end  of  the  century  ;  workable  with  many  jars  and  much  friction 
during  the  ensuing  decade  ;  and  thenceforward  a  complete  failure. 
The  pivotal  point  in  its  creation  and  application  was  the  three-fold 
structure  of  Governor*,  Legislative  Council  and  House  of  Assembly. 
They  corresponded,  after  a  shadowy  fashion,  to  the  King,  Lords  and 
Commons  of  England.  There  was  the  Executive  Council,  which 
developed  from  a  single  advisory  body  of  representative  men  into  a 
strong  Cabinet  somewhat  after  the  English  style  but  without  the  vital 
points  of  responsibility  to  the  Legislature  or  the  adoption  of  a  depart- 
mental system. 

The  Governor  or  Lieutenant-Governor  was,  of  course,  appointed 
by  the  Crown.  The  Legislative  Council  was  appointed  by  the  Governor, 
as  was  the  Executive  Council.  The  two  Councils  came  in  time  to 
be  so  mixed  up  in  composition  and  so  strongly  of  one  opinion  in 
matters  of  policy,  that  they  were  practically  one  and  the  same  body 
— the  smaller  one  being  really  a  committee  of  the  larger.  The 
Assembly,  on  the  other  hand,  was  elected  by  the  people  for  a  fixed 
term  of  years  and  naturally  soon  came  into  conflict  with  the  Upper 
House.     This  was  the  form  of  government  in  all  the  Provinces,  but 

*  The  Governor-General  seems  to  have  been  the  real  Governor  of  Lower  Canada  while  in  the  other  Provinces  he 
rarely  interfered  with  the  Lieutenant-Governors. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  War  of  1812-15 

AS  in  the  case  of  so  many  historic  cemflicts»  the  nominal  causes 
of  the  War  of  181 2  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  were  not  the  real  ones.  The  Berlin  Decrees  of 
Napoleon  Bonaparte  and  the  retaliatory  Orders-in-Council  of  the 
British  Government,  by  which  each  Power  sought  to  blockade  the 
coast  of  its  enemy  and  check  its  trade  and  commerce^  naturally  bore 
hardly  upon  neutral  Powers.  Especially  was  this  the  case  with  the 
American  Republic,  which  had  come  to  almost  monopolize  the  carry- 
ing trade  of  the  worid  during  England's  prolonged  death-grapple 
with  France.  So  far  as  the  latter  country  was  concerned,  the 
blockade  was  a  mere  paper  mandate,  but  in.  the  case  of  England, 
with  her  immense  and  effective  navy,  the  Orders-in-Council  became 
a  stem  reality  and  were  not  a  little  injurious  to  American  interests. 

CAUSES   OF    THE    WAX 

Still,  the  action  on  the  part  of  England  was  just  in  itself^  as 
well  as  a  matter  of  justifiable  self-defence,  and  had  there  been  any> 
thing  approaching  a  general  spirit  of  friendliness  or  kinship  in  the 
United  States,  to  say  nothing  of  sympathy  with  the  Mother-coun- 
try's continued  struggle  for  the  liberties  of  Europe,  the  policy  would 
have  been  borne  patiently,  or  modified  as  a  result  of  courteous  repre- 
sentations. But,  except  in  parts  of  New  England,  and  in  isolated 
instances  elsewhere,  this  sentiment  did  not  escist,  and  the  irritation 
which  still  lingered  from  the  days  of  the  Revolution  grew  in  force 
and  fire  as  it  fed  upon  the  unfortunate  effect  of  the  war  on  American 
commerce. 

XS3 


1 84  THE  WAR  OF  i8 12-15 

So  also  with  the  question  of  the  right  to  search  neutral  ships 
upon  the  high  seas  for  deserters.  From  the  United  States'  stand- 
point of  the  time  and  with  any  clear  perception  of  the  natural  feel- 
ings of  a  young,  proud  and  high-strung  nation,  under  all  the  circum- 
stances of  the  case,  it  is  easy  now  to  see  how  offensive  the  seizure  of 
its  vessels  and  the  forcible  removal  of  suspected  seamen  must  have 
been.  At  the  same  time,  had  there  not  been  the  bitterness  of  a 
strong  and  preconceived  hostility  of  sentiment,  the  reasonableness  of 
England's  position  from  her  standpoint  would  have  been  far  more 
generally  recognized. 

AMERICAN     EXPECTATIONS 

The  latter  country  was  engaged  in  a  great  struggle  for  national 
existence,  and  her  very  life  depended  upon  the  fleet  whose  strength 
was  being  steadily  depleted  by  the  desertion  of  its  seamen  to  Ameri- 
can vessels.  Under  such  circumstances  her  exercise  of  a  right  of 
search,  which  had  not  been  previously  questioned  with  any  degree  of 
seriousness  by  other  Powers,  might  at  least  have  been  met  in  a  spirit 
of  some  compromise.  To  have  refused  to  accept,  or  to  have  aided 
in  returning,  the  deserters  from  ships  of  a  friendly  Power,  under  such 
conditions  of  extreme  gravity,  might  have  been  thought  a  reasonable 
action.  But  it  does  not  seem  to  have  been  even  considered,  and  the 
unfortunately  high-handed  action  of  H.  M.  S.  Leopard  in  capturing 
the  Chesapeake  and  taking  certain  alleged  deserters  to  Halifax  Har- 
bour, where  they  were  tried  and  punished,  complicated  matters  still 
further.  And  this  despite  the  immediate  apologies  of  the  British 
Government  and  recall  of  the  officers  concerned.  Then  came  the 
unprovoked  destruction  of  the  Little  Belt  by  an  American  frigate  in 
1811.  Jefferson's  embargo,  excluding  British  ships  from  American 
ports,  also  followed  ;  though  it  was  afterwards  repealed  from  inability 
to  enforce  its  provisions.  And  so  things  developed  in  connection 
with  these  two  nominal  causes  of  a  sanguinary  struggle. 


THE  WAR  OF  i8 12-15  185 

First  of  all,  the  real  reasons  for  the  war  lay  deeper.  There  was, 
the  still  smouldering  hostility  of  Revolutionary  days  in  the  United 
States.  There  was,  still  further,  the  natural  sympathy  of  its  people 
with  France,  as  an  old-time  ally  against  England,  and  despite  the 
apparent  inconsistency  of  a  republic  supporting  the  ambitions  of  a 
military  autocracy.  There  was,  also,  a  lingering  and  longing  desire 
to  round  off  the  country  by  the  acquisition  of  British  America ;  and 
the  strong  popular  belief  that  it  would  be  an  easy  thing  to  do  in  the 
event  of  war.  There  was  the  inevitable  political  complication  of  par- 
ties struggling  for  public  support  and,  in  the  end,  there  was  the  spec- 
tacle of  President  Madison  accepting  re-nomination  (and  eventual 
election)  upon  an  actual  pledge  to  declare  war  against  Great  Britain. 

These  were  the  real  causes  of  the  struggle.  England  had  no 
desire  for  it.  Her  every  interest  was  in  peace  and  her  every  effort  was 
to  preserve  it.  Canada,  indeed,  suffered  during  the  early  days  of  the 
war  from  actual  instructions  to  the  Governor-General,  Sir  George 
Prevost,  to  take  things  easy  on  the  chance  of  an  arrangement  being 
patched  up  and  the  greatly  burdened  backs  of  the  British  soldier  and 
sailor  and  taxpayer  saved  from  the  addition  of  a  new  conflict.  At 
this  time  Wellington  was  still  warring  in  the  Peninsula,  Napoleon  was 
at  the  height  of  his  power,  and  British  money  was  being  poured  out 
like  water  to  hold  the  allied  nations  of  Europe  from  utter  collapse. 
It  was,  in  fact,  the  critical  moment  in  the  prolonged  British  conflict 
with  a  great  soldier  who  seemed  now  to  have  a  continent  at  his  feet 
and  400,000  of  the  finest  troops  ever  trained  by  genius  and  con- 
quering skill  ready  at  his  hand.  His  only  danger,  the  only  check 
upon  his  colossal  ambitions,  came  from  the  little  country  across  the 
channel  against  whom  the  United  States,  on  June  18,  181 2,  formally 
declared  war. 

If  England,  however,  had  reason  to  regret  the  addition  of  one  more 
enemy  and  another  conflict  to  the  catalogue  of  her  responsibilities 

II 


i86  THE  WAR  OF  i8 12-15 

and  difficulties,  the  scattered  Provinces  of  British  America  had  still 
more  apparent  cause  to  do  so.  From  the  Detroit  River  to  Halifax 
there  were  spread  along  a  thousand  miles  of  border-line  less  than  5,000 
British  troops.  The  population  of  the  whole  vast  region  was  only 
300,000,  men,  women  and  children  as  against  an  American  population 
of  8,000,000.  The  people  of  Upper  Canada,  where  the  bulk  of  the 
fighting  was  to  take  place,  were  only  77,000  in  number.  The  result 
seemed  so  certain  that  Jefferson  described  it  as  "a  mere  matter  of 
marching;"  Eustis,  the  Secretary  of  War,  declared  that  "we  can  take 
the  Canadas  without  soldiers;"  Henry  Clay  announced  that  "we 
have  the  Canadas  as  much  under  our  command  as  she  (Great  Britain) 
has  the  ocean." 

GENERAL    BROCK    THE    HERO    OF    THE    WAR 

Much  of  the  successful  resistance  of  the  Provinces  to  the  ensuing 
invasion  of  their  territories  by  eleven  different  armies  in  two  years  is 
due  to  the  wisdom  and  courage  of  Major-General  Sir  Isaac  Brock  who, 
in  1 81 2,  was  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Upper  Canada  and  Commander 
of  the  forces.  Nearly  every  war,  in  every  country,  seems  to  produce 
some  one  central  figure,  and  Brock  is  undeniably  the  hero  of  this  impor- 
tant struggle — a  war  which  decided  the  destiny  of  half  a  continent  and 
affected  the  whole  future  of  Great  Britain  and  its  then  infant  Empire. 
He  anticipated  what  was  coming,  warned  the  British  authorities  of  its 
inevitability,  and  strove  with  limited  means  and  shadowy  support  to 
prepare  for  the  time  of  struggle.  Addressing  the  Legislature  of  his 
Province  on  February  4,  181 2,  and  more  than  four  months  before  the 
actual  outbreak  of  the  war,  he  described  the  situation  of  England  and 
Upper  Canada  in  stirring  and  historic  words  : 

"The  glorious  contest  in  which  the  British  Empire  is  engaged  and  the  vast  sacri- 
fice which  Britain  nobly  offers  to  secure  the  independence  of  other  nations  might  be 
expected  to  stifle  every  feeling  of  envy  and  jealousy  and  at  the  same  time  to  excite 
the  interest  and  command  the  admiration  of  a  free  people  ;  but,  regardless  of  such 


THE  WAR  OF  i8i2-t5  187 

general  impressions,  the  American  Government  evinces  a  disposition  calculated  to 
impede  and  divide  her  efforts.  England  is  not  only  interdicted  the  harbours  of  the 
United  States  while  they  afford  a  shelter  to  cruisers  of  her  inveterate  enemy,  but  she 
is  likewise  compelled  to  resign  those  maritime  rights  which  she  has  so  long  exercised 
and  enjoyed.  Insulting  threats  are  offered  and  hostile  preparations  actually  com- 
menced ;  and  though  not  without  hope  that  cool  reflection  and  the  dictates  of  justice 
may  yet  avert  the  calamities  of  war,  I  cannot  be  too  urgent  in  recommending  to  your 
early  attention  the  adoption  of  such  measures  as  will  best  secure  the  internal  peace  of 
the  country  and  defeat  every  hostile  aggression." 

Within  the  last  few  lines  of  this  speech  there  is  a  hint  at  internal 
disaffection.  It  was,  indeed,  an  unfortunate  fact  that  American  set- 
tlers in  certain  districts  of  the  Province  had  elected  to  the  Legisla- 
tures men  who  reflected  their  views  and  seriously  hampered  for  a  brief 
period  the  action  of  the  Executive.  Two  of  these  so-called  British 
legislators  and  citizens  afterwards  fled  to  the  invaders'  lines,  and  one 
of  them,  named  Wilcocks,  ultimately  fell  in  fighting  the  country  of 
his  adoption  and  allegiance.  But  Brock  knew  that  he  could  depend 
upon  the  mass  of  the  people  in  his  Province  and  that  the  loyalty  of 
the  men  of  1 783  and  their  sons  would  flame  forth  as  brightly  at  this 
crisis  as  it  had  ever  done  in  the  days  of  revolution  and  niigration. 
He  told  them  truly,  through  an  appeal  to  the  Legislature,  that  the 
free  spirit  of  a  free  people  can  never  die  and  never  be  conquered,  and 
that  Great  Britain  would  stand  by  them  to  her  last  man  and  her  last 
gun  in  resisting  the  coming  wanton  invasion  of  British  territory. 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  therefore,  when  the  news  of  the 
declaration  of  war  reached  Brock,  through  a  private  source,  he  knew 
that  everything  would  depend  upon  swift  and  sweeping  action.  He 
promptly  sent  some  regulars  to  try  and  hold  the  Niagara  frontier, 
summoned  the  Legislature,  called  out  the  militia,  and  made  such 
preparations  as  he  could  pending  the  receipt  of  official  information 
regarding  the  action  of  the  United  States.  It  did  not  come,  but  on 
July  nth  General  Hull  crossed  the  St.  Clair  River,  from  Detroit  to 


i88  THE  WAR  OF  1812-15 

Sandwich,  with  2,000  men,  and  issued  a  braggadocio  proclamation 
announcing  protection  to  all  non-combatants,  declaring  the  certainty 
of  conquest  and  relief  from  British  "  tyranny  and  oppression,"  and 
stating  that  if  the  British  Government  accepted  assistance  from  its 
Indian  subjects  in  resisting  his  invasion,  "  instant  destruction  "  would 
be  the  lot  of  all  who  might  be  captured  fighting  beside  an  Indian  con- 
tingent. Brock  replied  with  a  most  eloquent,  dignified  and  patriotic 
manifesto,  and,  on  July  27th,  met  the  Legislature  with  an  address 
which  was  a  model  in  sentiment  and  expression.  By  the  8th  of 
August  Hull  had  returned  again  to  Detroit  on  hearing  of  the  capture 
by  Captain  Roberts,  in  pursuance  of  orders  from  his  chief,  of  the 
important  American  position  at  Michilimackinack. 

One  week  later  Brock,  with  320  regulars  and  400  militia  from 
York  and  Lincoln,  assisted  by  the  gallant  Indian  chief  Tecumseh 
and  some  600  followers,  was  crossing  the  St.  Clair  in  pursuit  of  his 
enemy.  Hull  had  been  startled,  first  by  a  summons  to  surrender,  and 
then  by  seeing  the  little  British  army  crossing  the  river — General 
Brock  "erect  in  his  canoe,  leading  the  way  to  battle,"  as  Tecumseh 
in  graphic  Indian  style  afterwards  described  the  event.  Before  an 
assault  could  be  made,  however,  Hull  and  his  entire  force  of  2,500 
men,  including  the  4th  United  States  Regiment  and  its  colours,, 
surrendered.  With  the  capitulation  went  the  entire  Territory 
of  Michigan  ;  the  town  and  port  of  Detroit,  which  practically 
commanded  the  whole  of  western  Canada ; .  the  Adams  war  brig ; 
many  stands  of  arms,  a  large  quantity  of  much-needed  stores,  thirty- 
three  pieces  of  cannon  and  the  military  chest.  It  had  been  a  bold,  a 
venturesome  action  on  the  part  of  Brock,  and  the  result  affected 
almost  the  entire  struggle.  It  inspirited  the  militia  from  end  to  end 
of  the  Provinces  ;  it  showed  many  of  those  having  disloyal  tendencies 
that  it  might  be  safer  to  at  least  appear  loyal ;  it  electrified  the  masses 
with  vigour  and  fresh  determination. 


THE  WAR  OF  l8 12-15  191 

Following  this  all-important  action  Brock  turned  to  nieet  greater 
difficulties  than  were  presented  by  the  enemy  in  the  field.  He  had 
to  encounter  the  weakness  and  vacillation  of  Sir  George  Prevost, 
who,  as  Governor-General  and  Commander  of  the  forces,  was  direct- 
ing affairs  from  Quebec  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  believed  that  hostili- 
ties would  soon  cease,  and  knew  that  the  Ministry  at  home  was 
anxious  to  do  nothing  that  would  intensify  difficulties  in  that  connec- 
tion. An  armistice,  arranged  by  Prevost,  neutralized  many  of  the 
benefits  derived  from  the  capture  of  Detroit ;  orders  from  the  same 
source  prevented  Brock  from  destroying  American  shipping  on  the 
Lakes  which  was  in  course  of  building,  and  which  he  forsaw  might 
endanger  the  control  of  that  most  vital  part  of  the  situation  ;  com- 
mands actually  issued  for  the  evacuation  of  Detroit,  though  they 
were  fortunately  capable  of  evasion  ;  while  the  very  documents  and 
General  Orders  written  by  Prevost,  were  dispiriting  in  effect  and  un- 
fortunate in  terms. 

But  Brock  turned  to  his  militia,  and,  though  refused  the  right  of 
aggressive  action  which  might  have  turned  the  whole  tide  of  events, 
he  proceeded  with  a  system  of  organization  which  soon  made  his  vol- 
unteer force  as  effective  in  health,  spirit,  drill  and  condition  as  well- 
equipped  and  experienced  regular  troops.  And,  through  the  sum- 
mary measures  of  imprisonment,  or  practical  banishment,  accorded 
those  who  showed  an  overt  inclination  to  the  American  side — coupled 
with  the  magnetic  influence  of  his  own  character  and  strong,  personal 
confidence  in  the  result  of  the  struggle — he  obtained  full  control  over 
the  population  as  well  as  the  Legislature. 

He  made  every  effort  to  give  the  volunteers  an  opportunity  of 
getting  in  their  crops,  and  all  over  the  Province  the  women  them- 
selves helped  by  working  in  the  fields.  Throughout  the  conflict, 
indeed,  the  signal  devotion  of  noble  women  was  continuously  added  to 
a  record  of  determined  defence  of  their  country  by  the  men  ;  and  the 


192  THE  WAR  OF  l8 12-15 

incident  of  Laura  Secord  walking  miles  through  snake-infested 
swamps  and  a  gloomy  forest  region  to  give  a  British  force  warning 
of  the  enemy's  approach,  was  by  no  means  an  isolated  instance  of 
devotion.  On  the  i8th  of  September,  while  his  preparations  were 
still  in  progress,  Brock  wrote  his  brother  that  in  a  short  time  he 
would  hear  of  a  decisive  action  and  added  :  "If  I  should  be  beaten 
the  Province  is  lost."  This  reference  to  the  gathering  of  8,000 
American  troops  upon  the  border,  for  invasion  by  way  of  Niagara, 
illustrates  the  signal  importance  of  the  coming  conflict  at  Queenston 
Heights.  Their  intention  was  to  take  and  hold  this  strong  position 
as  a  fortified  camp  and  from  thence  over-run  the  Province  with 
troops  brought  at  leisure  from  the  immense  reserves  behind.  At  the 
same  time.  General  Dearborn  with  a  large  force  was  to  menace  Mon- 
treal from  New  York  State  by  way  of  Lake  Champlain,  General 
Harrison  was  to  invade  the  Upper  Province  from  Michigan  with 
6,000  men,  and  Commodore  Chauncey  was  to  take  a  force  across 
Lake  Ontario. 

BATTLE    OF    QUEENSTON    HEIGHTS 

The  first  part  of  this  programme  commenced  on  October  13th, 
with  an  attempted  movement  of  1,500  U.  S.  regulars  and  2,500  militia 
across  the  Niagara  River.  About  1,100  troops,  slowly  followed  by 
other  detachments,  succeeded  in  getting  over  and  climbed  the  Heights 
of  Queenston  in  the  face  of  what  slight  resistance  could  be  offered  by 
a  British  outpost.  If  the  Americans  could  have  held  this  position  the 
result  was  certain  and  would  probably  have  been  much  in  the  line  of 
their  expectations.  Meantime,  Sir  Isaac  Brock — unknown  to  himself 
he  had  been  gazetted  an  extra  Knight  of  the  Bath  one  week  before 
as  a  recognition  of  his  victory  at  Detroit — had  arrived  from  his  nearby 
post  at  Fort  George  whence  he  had  been  watching  matters. 

But  before  he  could  do  anything  further  than  show  himself  to  his 
troops,  size  up  the  situation,  hasten  up  his  re-inforcements  and  shout 


THE  WAR  OF  1812-15  193 

out  an  order  to  "  Push  on  the  York  Volunteers,"  to  resist  an  Amer- 
ican contingent  which  at  this  point  was  making  its  way  up  the  Heights, 
he  fell  with  a  ball  in  his  breast  and  with  only  time  to  request  that  his 
death  should  be  concealed  from  the  soldiers.  The  re-inforcements, 
under  Major-General  Sheaffe,  arrived  shortly  afterwards  and,  with 
800  men  in  hand,  a  bayonet  charge  was  made  upon  the  enemy  which 
forced  them  over  the  Heights  down  toward  the  shore,  many  in  their 
headlong  retreat  being  dashed  to  pieces  amidst  the  rocks,  or  drowned 
in  attempting  to  cross  the  wild  waters  of  the  Niagara.  The  survivors 
surrendered  to  the  number  of  960  men,  including  Major-General 
Wadsworth,  six  Colonels  and  56  other  officers — amongst  whom  was 
the  afterwards  famous  General  Winfield  Scott.  The  British  loss  was 
trifling  in  numbers,  though  amongst  them  was  the  gallant  young  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel John  McDonell,  Attorney-General  of  the  Province. 

Considerable  as  was  the  victory,  however,  and  important  as  was 
the  result  to  Upper  Canada,  nothing  could  counter-balance  the  death 
of  the  hero  of  the  war.  The  inspiration  of  his  memory  remained,  it 
is  true,  and  was  lasting  in  its  effect,  but  the  presence  of  his  fertile 
intellect,  his  powers  of  rapid  movement,  his  genius  for  military  organ- 
ization were  forever  lost.  Had  he  lived  his  name  would  probably 
have  been  a  great  one  in  the  annals  of  the  British  army  and  the 
world.  As  it  is,  although  his  place  is  secure  in  the  web  and  woof  of 
Canadian  history  and  in  the  hearts  of  its  people,  it  has,  in  too  many 
British  and  American  records  of  war,  been  relegated  to  the  position 
held  by  myriads  of  gallant  ofificers  who  have  simply  done  their  duty 
and  been  killed  in  some  obscure  outpost  skirmish.  The  vast  import 
of  the  influences  and  issues  decided  by  these  first  events  of  the  strug- 
gle are  in  such  cases  disregarded  or  unknown. 

Winter  was  now  at  hand  and,  after  a  futile  invasion  from  Buffalo 
under  General  Smyth  which  was  repulsed  by  a  few  troops  commanded 
by  Colonel  Cecil  Bisshopp,  the  scene  of  the  conflict  goes  for  a  brief 


194  THE  WAR  OF  1812-15 

moment  to  Lower  Canada.  Prevost  had  his  difficulties  there,  as  well 
as  Brock  in  the  other  Province,  but  he  was  without  the  latter's  vigour 
and  determination.  He  had  succeeded  to  the  troubles  of  Sir  James 
Craig's  administration,  and  found  a  community  which  had  been 
violently  stirred  by  frothy  agitations  and  by  influences  resulting  from 
•the  peculiar  racial  conditions  of  the  country.  So  great  was  the 
apparent  discord  that  it  had  undoubtedly  helped  the  war  party  in  the 
States  to  spread  the  belief  that  the  passive  French  Canadians  of  1776 
were  now,  at  last,  active  in  their  antagonism  to  British  rule.  But 
when  war  was  once  declared  the  internal  strife  vanished  as  if  by 
magic  and  the  local  Legislature  showed  immediate  willingness  to  sup- 
port the  Governor  in  all  necessary  steps — and  in  this  proved  superior 
in  its  loyalty  to  the  little  Assembly  at  York  which  had  allowed  Wil- 
cocks  and  his  supporters  to  momentarily  block  procedure. 

The  Governor-General  was  authorized  to  levy  and  equip  2,000 
men  and,  in  case  of  invasion,  to  arm  the  whole  militia  of  the  Province. 
The  members  voted  ^32,000  for  purposes  of  defence  and  at  the  next 
Session  granted  ^15,000  a  year  for  five  years  in  order  to  pay  the  inter- 
est on  the  issue  of  army  bills.  It  maybe  stated  here  that  the  Upper 
Canada  Legislature,  in  February,  181 2,  also  recognized  the  immedi- 
ate need  of  money  by  authorizing  General  Brock  to  issue  army  bills 
to  the  extent  of  ;^5oo,ooo — two  million  dollars  in  the  Halifax  cur- 
rency of  $4.00  to  a  pound  which  was  so  long  and  extensively  used  in 
the  Provinces.  The  payment  of  the  interest  was  guaranteed,  and  in 
January,  18 14,  the  authorized  amount  of  issue  was  increased  to 
^1,500,000  currency — six  million  dollars.  The  financial  arrange- 
ments of  the  war  in  both  Provinces  were,  indeed,  excellently  made. 
No  public  officer  was  allowed  to  profit  by  the  use  of  these  notes  and 
the  payment  of  the  interest  was  carefully  attended  to  on  a  circulation 
of  which  the  highest  point  appears  to  have  been  $4,820,000.  In 
December,    1315,   it  may  be  added,  the  bills  were  called  in  and 


THE  WAR  OF  1812-15  195 

redeemed  by  Sir  Gordon  Drummond,  then  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
Upper  Canada,  and  acting  on  behalf  of  the  British  Government. 

Meantime,  to  again  refer  to  the  campaign  of  181 2,  some  10,000 
men  under  General  Dearborn  had  threatened  the  Lower  Province 
from  near  Lake  Champlain  ;  but  after  a  brief  demonstration  which 
was  checked  by  the  Montreal  militia  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  de 
Salaberry,  the  American  forces  all  along  the  line  retired  into  winter 
quarters  and  the  Canadas  found  that  they  had  come  through  the  first 
campaign  of  the  war  without  a  defeat  or  the  loss  of  a  foot  of  soil. 
Some  progress,  however,  had  been  made  by  the  Americans  in  obtain- 
ing that  command  of  the  Lakes  which  Brock  had  been  so  wisely  anx- 
ious to  avert  at  the  commencement  of  the  contest. 

THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1813 

The  campaign  of  181 3  was  not  quite  so  pleasant  an  experience. 
It  opened  successfully  for  the  British  and  Canadian  forces.  On  Janu- 
ary 19th,  Colonel  Procter  with  500  British  regulars  and  800  Indians 
under  the  Wyandotte  chief.  Roundhead,  crossed  the  frozen  St.  Clair, 
and,  two  days  later  attacked  General  Winchester,  who  had  about  an 
equal  number  of  men  under  him.  After  a  severe  battle  in  which  he 
lost  by  death  or  wounded,  182  men,  Procter  won  a  decisive  victory 
and  took  nearly  500  prisoners.  The  loss  to  the  enemy  in  killed  was 
between  three  and  four  hundred  men.  It  was  a  dearly-purchased 
success,  however,  as  it  won  for  Procter  a  reputation  which  he  sadly 
failed  to  live  up  to.  Colonel  George  McDonell,  who  had  raised  a 
strong  regiment  amongst  the  gallant  Highland  Catholics  of  the  Glen- 
garry settlement,  on  February  23rd  attacked  Ogdensburg,  in  New  York 
State — from  which  some  predatory  excursions  had  come  during  the 
winter — and  captured  eleven  guns,  a  large  quantity  of  ordinance  and 
military  stores  and  two  armed  schooners.  Four  officers  and  seventy 
privates  were  taken  prisoners. 


196  THE  WAR  OF  1812-15 

In  April,  however,  Commodore  Chauncey  with  a  fleet  of  14 
ships  and  1,700  troops,  sailed  from  Sackett's  Harbour,  on  the  New 
York  coast  of  Lake  Ontario,  for  York  (Toronto)  which  was  then  a 
small  place  of  800  population,  containing  the  Government  build- 
ings of  the  Province.  Under  the  immediate  command  of  Brigadier- 
General  Pike  the  Americans  landed  on  April  27th,  but  were  for  some 
time  held  in  check  by  the  determined  resistance  of  two  companies  of 
the  8th  Regiment  and  about  200  Canadian  militia.  The  Fort, 
situated  at  some  distance  from  the  little  town,  was  finally  captured 
after  an  accidental  explosion  in  which  Pike  and  260  of  his  men  were 
killed.  As  the  advance  continued,  General  Sheaffe  withdrew  his 
small  force  of  regulars  from  York  and  retreated  to  Kingston.  The 
town  then  surrendered  with  some  250  militia,  and,  despite  the  terms 
of  capitulation,  was  freely  pillaged  and  all  its  public  buildings  burned. 
Even  the  Church  was  robbed  of  its  plate  and  the  Legislative  Library 
looted.  In  this  latter  connection  Chauncey  expressed  great  indigna- 
tion and  made  a  personal  effort  to  restore  some  of  the  stolen 
books. 

Incidents  of  importance  now  came  swiftly  one  upon  another. 
On  May  27th,  Fort  George,  on  the  British  side  of  the  Niagara  River, 
was  captured  by  the  Americans,  and,  two  days  later.  Sir  George 
Prevost  was  repulsed  in  an  attack  upon  Sackett's  Harbour.  Early  in 
June  two  American  gunboats  were  captured  on  Lake  Champlain, 
and  on  the  5th  of  the  same  month,  Colonel  Harvey — a  soldier  with 
some  of  Brock's  brilliant  qualities  and  afterwards  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  all  the  Maritime  Provinces  in  turn — attacked  in  the 
night  a  large  force  of  at  least  3,500  Americans  encamped  at  Burling- 
ton Heights  (near  the  Hamilton  of  later  days)  and  captured  a  num- 
ber of  guns,  two  general  officers,  and  over  a  hundred  other  officers 
and  men.  On  the  24th  of  June  Lieutenant  Fitzgibbon,  of  the  49th 
Regiment,    by   a    clever    concealment   of    his    numbers,    forced    the 


THE  WAR  OF  l8 12-15  197 

surrender  of  544  American  soldiers  under  Colonel  Boerstler,  not  far 
from  Fort  George  and  Queenston.  He  had  only  some  66  troops 
and  250  Indians  in  his  command.  During  the  next  two  months  the 
British  captured  Black  Rock,  where  they  lost  the  gallant  Colonel 
Bisshopp,  and  Fort  Schlosser — both  on  the  Niagara  frontier.  Platts- 
burg,  on  Lake  Champlain,  was  captured  and  the  public  buildings 
burned  in  memory  of  York.  The  latter  place  was  taken  a  second 
time  by  the  Americans. 

Then  came  the  disastrous  British  defeat  on  Lake  Erie,  where 
Captain  Barclay,  with  six  vessels  and  300  seamen,  was  beaten  by 
Commodore  Perry,  with  nine  vessels  and  double  the  number  of  men. 
Not  only  disastrous,  but  disgraceful,  was  the  ensuing  defeat  of  Gen- 
ernal  Procter,  near  Moraviantown,  by  General  Harrison  who  had 
driven  him  from  Detroit  and  Amherstburg.  Procter  was  retreating 
steadily  with  some  400  troops,  and  800  Indians  under  Tecumseh,  pur- 
sued by  the  American  force  of  4,000  men.  The  battle  was  fought 
on  October  5th,  and  the  natural  result  followed,  with,  however,  the 
added  loss  of  Tecumseh.  The  disgrace  to  Procter,  who  fled  early  in 
the  day  and  was  afterwards  court-martialed,  censured  and  deprived 
of  all  command  for  six  months,  was  not  in  defeat  under  such  circum- 
stances, but  in  the  utter  lack  of  all  proper  military  precautions,  either 
at  the  time  of  conflict  or  during  his  previous  retreat.  The  death  of 
the  great  Indian  chief  was  one  of  the  severest  blows  to  the  British 
cause  in  the  whole  campaign.  It  was  more  important  even  than  the 
fact  that  this  victory  placed  the  entire  western  part  of  the  Province  in 
American  hands.  The  territory  might  be  won  back,  the  leader  never. 
Tecumseh  was,  indeed,  a  savage  of  heroic  mould,  one  who  inspired 
victory,  and  who,  when  acting  with  men  such  as  Brock  or  Harvey,  was 
almost  invincible.  His  Indians  would  do  anything  for  him — even 
refrain  from  massacre  or  cruelty — and  the  fear  of  him  felt  by  the  Ameri- 
cans was  shown  in  the  unfortunate  indignities  offered  to  his  corpse. 


198  THE  WAR  OF  1812-15 

The  next  few  months  saw  some  events  of  bright  import,  and 
attention  must  now  be  transferred  to  Lower  Canada.  The  French- 
Canadians  earnestly  and  enthusiastically  showed  their  love  for  the 
land  of  their  birth  and  home  by  turning  out  in  large  numbers  and 
fighting  bravely  wherever  required — notably  on  the  memorable  field 
of  Chateauguay. 

ATTEMPTS    TO    CAPTURE    MONTREAL 

By  October  an  army  of  8,000  men  had  been  collected  at 
Sackett's  Harbour,  N.  Y.,  under  Generals  Wilkinson  and  Boyd, 
for  the  descent  upon  Montreal  by  way  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  As 
these  forces  descended  the  river  they  were  followed  by  a  small 
and  compact  body  of  British  troops  under  Colonels  Pearson,  Harvey^ 
Morrison  and  Plenderleath,  accompanied  by  eight  gun-boats  and  three 
field-pieces  which  did  much  damage  to  the  enemy.  On  November 
1 1  th,  Wilkinson  and  his  main  army  were  with  the  flotilla  near  Pres- 
cott  and  on  the  way  to  effect  a  junction  with  an  army  under  General 
Hampton  which  was  to  meet  them  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chateauguay. 
General  Boyd,  with  2,500  men,  was  marching  along  the  shore  fol- 
lowed by  800  British  troops  under  Colonel  Morrison  who  had 
resolved  to  attack  the  enemy  at  a  place  called  Chrystler's  Farm.  The 
result  was  one  of  the  most  complete  victories  of  the  war,  the  Ameri- 
cans losing  many  prisoners  besides  339  officers  and  men,  killed  or 
wounded.  The  British  loss  was  181.  Boyd  immediately  returned  to 
his  boats  and  joined  Wilkinson.  They  then  proceeded  to  the  place 
at  which  the  junction  with  Hampton  was  to  be  made  and  from 
whence  they  were  to  advance  upon  Montreal. 

Meanwhile,  Hampton  had  marched  from  Lake  Champlain  with 
7,000  men  toward  the  mouth  of  the  Chateauguay.  At  this  point,  and 
amid  the  natural  difficulties  of  forest  surroundings,  he  was  met  on  the 
night  of  October  25th  by  Colonel  de  Salaberry  in  command  of  300 
French-Canadian  militia  and  a  few  Indians  and  supported  by  Colonel 


THE  WAR  OF  i8 12-15  201 

McDonell  with  another  French  contingent  of  600  men,  who  had  made 
the  most  rapid  forced  march  in  Canadian  history  and  had  reached 
Chateauguay  the  day  before  the  battle.  The  Americans  advanced 
upon  the  hidden  first  line  with  4,000  men,  but,  on  driving  it  back,  they 
met  the  second  line  under  Colonel  McDonell  and,  there,  encountered 
the  stratagem  of  buglers  placed  at  considerable  distances  apart  and 
sounding  their  instruments  so  as  to  give  the  impression  of  large  num- 
bers, while  at  the  same  time  the  bewildering  yells  and  war-cries  of 
some  fifty  scattered  Indians  immensely  increased  the  uproar  and 
tumult.  The  immediate  result  was  the  defeat  of  the  American  forces, 
their  retreat  on  the  following  day  and  their  consequent  failure  to 
meet  Wilkinson  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chateauguay. 

This  failure  involved  the  collapse  of  an  elaborate  campaign  of 
15,000  men  for  the  capture  of  Montreal,  through  the  timely  gallantry 
and  clever  leadership  of  two  little  armies  of  about  2,000  men  alto- 
gether. One  of  the  curious  incidents  of  the  battle  of  Chateauguay  was 
when  Colonel  de  Salaberry — his  first  line  of  troops  being  forced  back 
by  overwhelming  numbers — held  his  own  ground  in  the  darkness  with 
a  bugler  boy  whom  he  caused  to  sound  the  advance  for  McDonell — • 
thus  giving  the  latter  an  opportunity  to  put  into  effect  the  stratagem 
which  led  the  American  General  to  think  he  was  opposed  by  several 
thousand  men.  A  less  pleasing  incident  was  the  mean  and  untruth- 
ful manner  in  which  Prevost  endeavoured  in  his  despatches  to  take  the 
whole  credit  of  this  victory  to  himsglf.*  Despite  this,  the  facts  became 
known — largely  through  the  intervention  of  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of 
Kent,  who  had  often  proved  himself  a  friend  to  De  Salaberry — and  at 
the  end  of  the  war  McDonell  and  De  Salaberry  were  each  decorated 
with  a  C.  B. 

In  Upper  Canada  during  this  period  there  had  been  another 
glaring  evidence  of  Prevost's  incapacity.     Frightened  by  the  apparent 

*  Notably  that  of  31st  of  October,  1813. 


202  THE  WAR  OF  1812-15 

results  of  Procter's  defeat  near  Moraviantown,  he  had  ordered  the 
British  commander  at  Burlington  and  York  (General  Vincent)  to 
abandon  all  his  posts  and  retire  upon  Kingston.  Had  this  been  done 
the  Upper  Province  would  have  been  practically  in  American  hands. 
Instead  of  doing  so,  however,  Vincent  maintained  his  ground,  and 
Colonel  Murray,  with  some  ^il"^  regulars  and  a  few  volunteers  and 
Indians,  was  given  permission  some  weeks  later  to  advance  upon  the 
enemy  who,  with  2,700  men  under  General  McClure,  was  holding 
Fort  George.  On  December  loth  the  latter  evacuated  the  Fort,  but, 
before  doing  so  wantonly  and  cruelly  burned  to  the  ground  the 
neighbouring  village  (and  one-time  capital)  of  Newark.  It  was  a 
cold  winter's  night,  and  the  beautiful  little  village  contained  chiefly 
women  and  children — the  men  being  either  away  at  the  front  or 
prisoners  across  the  river.  The  unfortunate  inhabitants  were  driven 
into  the  snow  without  shelter  and  in  many  cases  very  scantily 
clothed.  British  retribution  was  swift.  The  American  Fort  Niagara, 
just  across  the  river,  was  promptly  stormed  and  held  until  the  end  of 
the  war,  and  the  neighbouring  villages  of  Lewistown,  Youngstown, 
Manchester  and  Tuscarora  were  burned.  These  events  closed  the 
campaign  of  181 3,  at  the  end  of  which  the  Americans  only  held 
possession  of  Amherstburg,  on  the  frontier  of  Upper  Canada,  and, 
besides  losing  all  the  benefits  of  Harrison's  success  against  the  inca- 
pable Procter,  had  also  lost  Fort  Niagara  on  the  American  side  and 
with  it  the  control  of  the  frontier  in  that  direction. 

THE    STRUGGLE    OF    1814 

General  Sir  Gordon  Drummond,  a  brave  and  able  officer,  had 
meanwhile,  become  Administrator  and  Commander  in  Upper  Canada, 
and  this  fact  had  much  influence  upon  the  succeeding  struggle  of 
1814.  This  last  campaign  of  the  war  commenced  with  another 
advance  from  Lake  Champlain  by  4,000  men  under  General  Wilkin- 
son.    It  was  checked,  and  eventually  repulsed  on  March  30th  by  a 


THE  WAR  OF  1812-15  203 

gallant  handful  of  some  300  men  commanded  by  Major  Handcock, 
at  Lacolle's  Mill — a  small  stone  building  on  the  Lacolle  River,  and 
about  a  third  of  the  way  between  Plattsburg  and  Montreal,  A  little 
later  Michilimackinac  was  relieved  by  Colonel  McDonell,  and  in  May 
Sir  Gordon  Drummond  and  Sir  James  Yeo,  the  naval  Commander, 
captured  Fort  Oswego  on  the  New  York  side  of  Lake  Ontario, 
together  with  some  valuable  naval  stores.  Meantime,  some  minor 
defeats  had  been  encountered  by  British  detachments,  and  early  in 
July  Major-General  Brown,  with  5,000  troops,  backed  by  4,000  New 
York  militia,  which  had  been  ordered  out  and  authorized  for  the  war, 
invaded  Upper  Canada  from  Buffalo.  To  meet  this  attack  Drum- 
mond had  about  4,000  effective  regulars,  depleted  however,  by  the 
necessity  of  garrisoning  a  number  of  important  posts.  His  difficul- 
ties in  meeting  the  invasion  were  also  increased  by  the  seeming 
impossibility  of  making  Prevost  understand  the  situation  and  the  need 
of  re-inforcements.  The  latter  could  only  see  the  menace  offered  to 
Lower  Canada  by  the  massed  forces  at  Lake  Champlain. 

Fort  Erie  surrendered  to  the  Americans  on  July  3d,  and  General 
Riall  was  defeated  at  Chippewa  two  days  later,  with  the  loss  of  5 1 1 
men  killed  or  wounded.  The  victorious  American  advance  was 
checked,  however,  at  Lundy's  Lane,  where  Sir  Gordon  Drummond, 
who  had  come  up  from  Kingston  with  800  men,  assumed  command, 
and  on  July  25th,  within  sound  of  the  roar  of  Niagara  Falls  and  in 
the  most  beautiful  part  of  a  picturesque  and  fertile  region,  there  was 
fought  the  fiercest  battle  of  the  whole  war,  and  one  which  continued 
during  the  greater  part  of  a  dark  night.  The  victory  is  variously 
claimed,  but  the  bare  facts  are  that,  after  trying  for  six  hours  with 
5,000  men  to  force  a  British  position  held  by  half  that  number. 
Brown  had  to  retire  to  Chippewa  with  a  loss  of  930  men  as  against 
Drummond's  loss  of  870,  and  with  his  advance  effectually  checked. 
On  the  26th  he  retreated  to  Fort  Erie,  and  was  there  shortly  after 


204  THE  WAR  OF  1812-15 

attacked  unsuccessfully  by  the  British  with  a  loss  to  the  latter  of 
500  men.  Until  September,  however,  he  was  blockaded  within  the 
walls  of  the  Fort. 

The  struggle  with  Napoleon  in  Europe  was  now  temporarily 
over,  and  16,000  trained  and  experienced  British  troops  had  been, 
meanwhile,  landed  at  Quebec.  Prevost  advanced  with  a  force  of 
1 2,000  of  these  troops  to  Plattsburg,  where  he  was  to  co-operate  with 
the  British  fleet  on  Lake  Champlain.  The  latter  was  defeated,  how- 
ever, and  the  British  general,  with  an  army  which,  under  Brock, 
might  have  menaced  New  York  City  itself,  ignominiously  retreated 
in  the  face  of  two  or  three  thousand  American  soldiers.*  So  far  as 
the  Canadas  were  concerned  territorially  this  practically  ended  the 
war.  Despite  Prevost's  disgrace  at  Plattsburg,  the  campaign  for  the 
year  terminated  with  the  British  control  of  Lake  Ontario — although 
the  Americans  were  masters  of  Lake  Erie — and  with  their  possession 
of  several  forts  on  American  soil,  to  say  nothing  of  a  portion  of  the 
State  of  Maine. 

In  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  struggle  had  not  been  so  severely 
felt.  Major-General  Sherbrooke  was  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Nova 
Scotia  and,  through  the  vicinity  of  the  British  fleet  at  Halifax  and 
the  presence  of  a  sufficient  number  of  regulars,  was  able  in  18 14  to 
make  a  series  of  attacks  upon  the  coast  and  frontier  of  Maine  until 
the  whole  region  from  Penobscot  to  the  St.  Croix  was  in  British 
hands.  Sherbrooke  had  also  been  sending  troops  up  to  Canada 
whenever  possible  and  the  march  of  the  104th  Regiment  in  Febru- 
ary, 18 1 3,  through  hundreds  of  miles  of  frozen  wilderness,  was  of 
special  interest  as  well  as  importance. 

Elsewhere  on  sea  and  land  the  war  had  been  equally  varied.  A 
number  of  naval  victories  were  won  by  the  United  States  as  well  as 
by  Great  Britain  but,  excluding  the  actions  fought  in  Canadian  waters, 

♦  He  was  recalled  and  only  escaped  the  condemnation  of  a  Court  Martial  by  death. 


THE  WAR  OF  iS  12-15  *^ 

there  seems  in  nearly  every  case  of  American  victory  to  have  been  a 
great  superiority  on  their  part  in  men,  guns,  metal  and  tonnage.  The 
purely  British  part  of  the  campaign  of  18 14  included  the  capture  of 
the  City  of  Washington  and  the  burning  of  its  public  buildings  in 
revenge  for  the  previous  harrying  of  the  Niagara  frontier  and  the 
burnings  of  York  and  Newark.  An  unsuccessful  attempt  was  also 
made  to  capture  New  Orleans.  The  terrible  bloodshed  of  this  last 
struggle  of  the  war — over  3,000  British  troops  were  reported  killed, 
wounded  or  missing — was  the  result  of  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  on 
December  24,  18 14,  a  treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed  at  Ghent. 

THE    EFFECTS   OF    THE    STRUGGLE 

The  immediate  effects  of  the  struggle  are  clear  upon  the  pages 
of  history.  The  Americans  obtained  not  a  foot  of  British  territory 
and  not  a  solitary  sentimental  advantage.  Their  seaboard  was  insulted 
and  injured,  their  capital  city  partially  destroyed  and  3,000  of  their 
vessels  captured.  The  immense  gain  to  their  carrying-trade  which 
had  previously  accrued  as  a  result  of  England's  conflict  with  Napo- 
leon was  neutralized,  while  their  annual  exports  were  reduced  to 
almost  nothing  and  their  commercial  classes  nearly  ruined.  A  vast 
war-tax  was  incurred  and  New  England  rendered  disaffected  for  years 
to  come.  The  twin  questions  of  right  of  search  and  the  position  of 
neutrals  in  time  of  war  which  had  been  the  nominal  causes  of  the 
conflict  were  not  even  mentioned  in  the  Treaty  of  Ghent.  Some 
military  and  naval  glory  was  won,  but  the  odds  were  in  favour  of  the 
United  States  throughout  the  struggle  and,  when  England's  hands 
were  finally  freed  by  Wellington's  march  upon  Paris,  the  war 
ceased.  In  many  of  these  conflicts,  however,  both  on  sea  and  land — 
notably  in  the  famous  duel  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Shannon  when 
Sir  Provo  Wallis,  of  Nova  Scotian  birth,  laid  the  foundation  of  fame 
and  fortune — United  States  soldiers  and  seamen  showed  all  the 
courage  and  skill  of  the  race  from  which  they  had  sprung. 

12 


2o6  THE  WAR  OF  l8 12-15 

To  Great  Britain  the  war  had  been  only  one  more  military  and 
naval  burden.  It  added  to  her  difficulties  in  fighting  France,  subsi- 
dizing Europe  and  holding  the  seas  against  the  sweeping  ambitions  of 
Napoleon.  But  her  struggle  for  life  or  death  had  been  so  prolonged 
in  this  connection  and  the  shadow  of  its  wings  so  dark  and  menacing, 
that  the  conflict  in  Canada  did  not  then,  and  has  not  since,  attracted 
the  attention  it  deserved.  While  this  was  natural  enough  at  that 
period,  the  time  has  now  come  when  the  position  should  be  changed 
and  the  memories  of  Brock  and  De  Salaberry,  Morrison  and  McDonell, 
Harvey  and  Drummond,  be  given  their  place  in  the  historic  pantheon 
of  Empire.  Canadian  difficulties  in  the  struggle  should  be  under- 
stood, the  courage  of  its  people  comprehended,  the  results  of  the  con- 
flict appreciated.  The  conflict  meant  more  than  the  mere  details  of 
skirmishes,  battles  and  the  rout  of  invading  armies  would  indicate.  It 
involved  considerations  greater  than  may  be  seen  in  the  ordinary 
record  of  campaigns  in  which  the  Canadian  militia  and  British  regu- 
lars appear  as  able  to  hold  their  own  in  a  prolonged  struggle. 

That  a  population  of  500,000  people,  scattered  over  widely  sun- 
dered areas,  should  be  able,  almost  unaided,  to  thus  successfully 
oppose  the  aggressive  action  of  an  organized  republic  of  eight  millions 
was  an  extraordinary  military  performance  and  it  is  not  unnatural 
that,  in  considering  the  record  and  the  result,  it  has  been  chiefly  done 
from  the  military  standpoint.  To  the  up-building  of  Canada,  how- 
ever, the  war  holds  a  place  not  dissimilar  in  national  import  to  that 
of  the  Revolution  in  United  States  history. 

It  consolidated  the  British  sentiment  of  the  whole  population 
from  the  shores  of  Lake  Huron  to  the  coasts  of  the  Atlantic.  It 
eliminated  much  of  the  disloyal  element  which  was  beginning  to  eat 
into  the  vitals  of  Provincial  life  in  Upper  Canada  ;  and  modified  in 
some  measure  the  force  of  the  American  spirit  which  remained  in 
the  hearts  of  a  section  of  its  settlers.     It  checked  the  growth  of 


THE  WAR  OF  l8 12-15  307 

Republicanism  amongst  the  French  of  Lower  Canada  and  helped  to 
prevent  the  Rebellion  of  1837  in  that  Province  from  being  the  rising  of 
a  whole  people  united  in  political  sympathies — as  were  its  leaders — 
with  the  great  and  growing  population  to  the  south.  It  made  the 
authorities  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  same  part  of  the 
country  feel  once  more  as  they  did  when  the  Continental  Congress 
of  1775  attacked  the  Quebec  Act  that  the  only  visible  danger  to  what 
they  considered  the  sacred  rights  and  privileges  of  their  faith  came 
from  the  other  side  of  the  international  line.  It,  for  a  time,  brought 
Canadians  of  French  and  English  extraction  together  in  defence  of 
their  hearths  and  homes  and  laid  in  this  fact  an  almost  invisible 
foundation  for  that  seemingly  vain  vision — the  permanent  Federal 
Union  of  British  America  for  purposes  of  common  defence,  interests 
and  government.  It  affected  powerful  religious  organizations,  such 
as  the  Methodist  denomination,  which  were  becoming  dependent  on 
American  pulpits,  supplies  and  polity.  It  affected  social  life  and  cus- 
toms by  drawing  still  more  distinct  the  Loyalist  line  against  innova- 
tions from  the  other  side  of  the  border.  Finally,  it  greatly  affected 
political  development  and  assured  the  ultimate  success  of  those  who 
strove  honestly,  though  sometimes  mistakenly  in  detail,  to  preserve 
and  promote  the  permanent  acceptance  of  British,  as  opposed  to 
American,  principles  of  government  upon  the  northern  half  of  the 
continent. 


CHAPTER  X 

An  Era  of  Agitation 

IN  the  early  years  of  the  century  there  began  to  develop  in  the 
Canadas — and  especially  in  Lower  Canada  as  Quebec  had  come 
to  be  called — the  seeds  of  a  violent  constitutional  agitation.  It 
arose  in  the  latter  Province  out  of  the  well-intentioned  but  mistaken 
policy  of  giving  the  forms  of  free  self-government  to  a  people  who 
knew  nothing  of  the  reality.  To  confer  British  institutions  upon  men 
of  French  origin  was  in  itself  an  extraordinary  proceeding  ;  but  when 
it  is  remembered  that  these  French-Canadians  had  been,  in  1791,  only 
a  generation  removed  from  the  subjects  of  France  in  the  most  despotic 
of  Bourbon  days,  and  that  they  had  changed  very  slightly  since  that  time 
in  either  character,  experience,  or  knowledge  it  seems  still  more  so. 

INFLUENCE    OF    THE     POLITICIAN 

The  habitant  of  that  period,  and  during  the  succeeding  thirty 
years,  knew  nothing  of  government  except  in  traditional  memories  of 
autocracy  and  in  his  present  perception  of  the  position  of  his  Seigneur 
as  having  control  of  the  land  and  its  taxation  and  his  Priest  as  having 
charge  of  his  soul,  his  morals,  and  his  pleasures.  As  time  passed 
however,  he  began  to  see  another  influence — the  politician  or 
demagogue — and  was  assured  that  the  English  Parliament  had  given 
to  the  French-Canadians  an  Assembly  by  which  they  were  to  govern 
their  own  country ;  but  that  the  English  in  Lower  Canada  would  not 
allow  it  full  control.  The  tyranny  of  the  Executive  Council,  which 
advised  the  Governor-General,  and  of  the  Legislative  Council,  which 
threw  out  any  legislation  of  an  advanced  kind  emanating  from  the 
Assembly,  were  pourtrayed  to  him  in  vivid  colours. 
208 


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AN  ERA  OF  AGITA  TION  2 1 1 

The  habitajtt  naturally  did  not  understand  matters  very  clearly. 
He  began  to  believe  that  it  was  a  question  of  English  against  French 
and  that  the  Assembly  was  a  weapon  granted  by  Providence  with 
which  to  smite  the  tyrants  whom  an  English  King  had  placed  in 
power.  The  French-Canadian  peasant  can  hardly  be  blamed  for  this. 
He  had  not  advanced  in  education  as  he  had  advanced  in  the 
responsibilities  of  government.  The  voter  going  to  the  polls  of 
Lower  Canada  in  1800,  or  1820,  knew  as  much  of  the  principles  of 
self-government  as  his  father  had  done  in  the  days  of  Bigot  or 
his  grandfather  under  Louis  XIV.  He  had  no  knowledge  of 
even  the  rudiments  of  municipal  control  and  management,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  theories  and  precedents  and  principles  and  intricate 
practices  of  Parliamentary  rule.  He  was  plunged  in  an  instant  into 
a  condition  of  affairs  which  it  had  taken  centuries  of  evolution  and 
struggle  and  civil  war  to  reach  in  England  itself ;  and  it  was  little 
wonder  if  he  failed  to  understand  the  workings  of  the  system.  Still 
less  surprising  was  it  that  the  whisperings  of  agitators  and  the 
traditions  of  racial  feeling  should  have  stirred  him  up  to  use  his 
privileges  in  order  to  obtain  more  and  to  vent,  at  the  same  time,  his 
prejudices  against  an  alien  authority  which  in  certain  phases,  and 
despite  the  best  of  intentions,  was  naturally  antagonistic  to  him. 

RACIAL    AND    CLASS    HOSTILITY 

The  English  people  in  Quebec  and  Montreal  comprised  the 
governing  class  of  the  community  and,  in  time,  included  a  large 
mercantile  and  commercial  element.  The  French  on  the  other  hand 
were  essentially  rural  and  agricultural  in  occupation  and  their  material 
interests  were  therefore  easily  made  to  appear  in  antagonism  to  those 
of  the  urban  centres.  So  that,  as  years  passed  on,  within  the  circle 
of  racial  hostility  there  was  to  be  found  a  smaller  circle  of  class 
hostility.  Both  found  expression  in  the  Legislature  and  in  certain 
newspapers  of  the  rabid  type.      As  the  ensuing  political  appeals  and 


212  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

denunciations  and  explanations  were  in  different  languages  they 
altogether  failed  to  reach  the  other  side  and  consequently  intensified 
the  racial  feeling- -especially  on  the  part  of  the  French  masses. 

The  Seigneurs  were  not  as  numerous  as  in  the  days  before  the 
Conquest,  but  they  were  still  a  strong  class  in  the  community  and 
with  a  tendency  to  lend  their  influence  to  moderate  councils.  The 
Governors,  both  before  and  after  the  period  of  military  rule,  did  their 
utmost  to  conciliate  the  French  gentry ;  and  only  a  lack  of  forceful- 
ness  in  character  and  ability  in  statecraft  seems  to  have  prevented 
the  latter  from  sharing  considerably  in  the  government.  More 
than  one  of  the  despatches  sent  to  the  Colonial  Office  during  this 
period  bear  testimony  to  the  paucity  of  capable  and  suitable  French- 
Canadians  from  whom  members  of  the  Councils  might  be  chosen. 
The  inevitable  result  of  all  this  was  that  men  of  British  birth  or 
extraction  held  the  reins  of  power,  and  guarded,  more  or  less 
securely,  the  avenues  of  approach  to  office. 

Though  the  administrations  of  Lord  Amherst  and  General 
Murray,  General  Carleton  and  General  Haldimand,  Lord  Dorchester* 
and  General  Prescott — 1760  to  1799 — were  more  or  less  military  in 
their  nature,  the  Assembly,  which  was  first  organized  in  1792, 
proved  comparatively  amenable  to  the  necessities  of  the  situation 
and  was  not  yet  filled  with  too  great  a  sense  of  its  power  and  oppor- 
tunities. The  first  meeting  of  this  body,  however,  gave  some  faint 
indications  of  what  was  coming.  It  passed  a  loyal  Address  to  the 
King,  which  proved  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  similar  Resolutions, 
which  were  introduced  from  time  to  time  whenever  some  innovation 
was  about  to  be  proposed,  or  some  old  proposal  to  be  renewed  and 
pressed  in  varying  degrees  of  violence.  It  preceded  this  action  by 
the    very    natural    selection   of  a  French-Canadian  as  Speaker,   and 

*  Guy  Carleton,  created  Baron  Dorchester  in  1786,  and  appointed  for  the  second  time  as  Governor-General  of  British 
America, 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  213 

followed  it  Up  by  a  Resolution  demanding  the  use  of  both  the  French 
and  English  languages  in  debate  and  in  the  published  documents  of 
the  Assembly.  The  membership  of  the  House  of  Assembly,  it  may 
be  added,  numbered  fifty  at  this  time,  and  was  almost  entirely  French, 
while  the  Legislative  Council  numbered  fifteen,  and  was  almost  en- 
tirely English  in  composition. 

Gradually,  disputes  between  the  two  bodies  developed,  and  by 
the  opening  of  the  century  promised  very  clearly  to  produce  a  violent 
future.  The  Assembly  claimed  full  control  of  the  revenues,  without 
knowing  how  to  make  the  necessary  constitutional  changes,  and  with- 
out proposing  anything  practicable  in  the  way  of  a  new  system.  As 
things  were  the  Governor  was  really  responsible  to  the  Crown — or 
the  British  Cabinet — for  his  administration  of  funds  which  came  in 
part  from  excise  and  customs  levied  under  Imperial  enactment,  in 
part  from  taxes  controlled  by  the  Assembly  and  Council  together 
and  in  part  from  moneys  contributed  by  the  Imperial  Government  to 
the  payment  of  salaries  and  for  special  purposes  of  military  necessity. 

It  was  a  difficult  enough  problem  had  there  been  no  racial 
antagonisms,  or  religious  complications,  or  diverse  languages.  No 
party  in  Quebec,  either  in  1800,  or  in  1837  when  the  troubles  had 
developed  into  rebellion,  understood  or  demanded  a  full  system  of 
Ministerial  government  and  responsibility  such  as  the  Province  and 
Dominion  have  to-day.  This  point  is  of  the  greatest  importance 
and  is  usually  overlooked  in  the  study  of  these  times.  Looking  back 
now  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  Council  was  intended  as  a  "  buffer  " 
between  the  Assembly  and  the  King's  Representative ;  that  it  did 
not  serve  this  purpose  very  long  as  the  French  masses  soon  came  to 
consider  the  two  identical ;  that  there  were  no  departments  of  gov- 
ernment administrating  different  matters  and  responsible  to  Parlia- 
ment for  the  performance  of  duty  and,  especially,  for  the  management 
of  moneys ;  that  there  was  no   Premier  responsible  to  the  Assembly 


214  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

for  the  composition  of  his  Cabinet  and  the  policy  of  his  Province, 
and  that  none  was  asked  for  ;  that  the  spirit  which  soon  showed  itself 
amongst  the  leaders  of  the  French-Canadians  was  not  one  calculated 

o 

to  encourage  the  formulation  from  England  of  schemes  for  a  Minis- 
terial responsibility  which  was  not  understood  and  practised,  even 
there,  as  it  was  after  the  days  of  the  Reform  Bill;  that  no  glim- 
mering had  yet  come  to  either  English  Liberals  or  Tories  of  a  Colo- 
nial Governor  acting  as  the  constitutional  sovereign  of  a  free  people 
and  yet  representing  in  very  real  fashion  the  Crown  of  the  Empire. 
These  things  can  form  no  part  of  any  written  constitution,  and  could 
only  develop  out  of  passing  years  and  growing  experience. 

THE    PROBLEM    AFTER   THE    WAR   OF    l8l2 

The  problem,  as  it  revived  after  the  War  of  1812,  was  very 
complex  and  can  only  be  fairly  and  fully  understood  by  entire  dis- 
association  from  the  stormy  debates  and  feelings  of  the  times,  and 
from  the  prejudices  perpetuated  by  much  historical  writing  of  a 
biased  character.  It  may  be  taken  for  granted,  and  as  a  basis  for 
any  such  study  of  the  situation,  that  there  was  good  in  all  parties  to 
the  prolonged  dispute,  in  all  the  Provinces.  The  Imperial  Govern- 
ment acted  from  the  first  without  a  selfish  or  unworthy  motive,  and 
despite  the  limitless  trouble  which  the  Colonial  controversies  neces- 
sarily created.  It  was  always  anxious  to  conciliate  factions,  always 
ready  to  concede  every  claim  which  seemed  safe  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  time,  always  desirous  of  sending  good  men  to  administer 
affairs  in  an  honest  and  honourable  fashion.  But  the  mistake  of  the 
Colonial  Office  was  in  its  failure  to  preserve  continuity  of  policy,  its 
misfortune  was  in  being  subject  to  party  changes  at  home,  its  fault — 
a  very  natural  one — was  in  not  always  understanding  the  situation 
clearly. 

The  Governors  of  the   Colonies  in  British   America  were  upon 
the  whole  a  splendid  class  of  men.     No   more  honourable  and  able 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  215 

administrators  can  be  found  in  the  pages  of  history  than  Lord  Dor- 
chester, Sir  Frederick  Haldimand,  Sir  J.  Coape  Sherbrooke,  the  Earl 
of  Dalhoiisie,  Sir  John  Wentworth,  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  Major- 
General  Simcoe,  Sir  John  Colborne  (Lord  Seaton),  Sir  Howard 
Douglas  or  Sir  John  Harvey.  There  were  exceptions,  of  course, 
but  even  where  ability  or  tact  was  lacking  there  is  not  in  all  Canadian 
annals  the  case  of  a  British  Governor  guilty  of  dishonourable  or 
mean  public  actions — unless  it  be  the  conduct  of  Sir  George  Prevost 
in  the  War  of  181 2,  when  acting  as  a  military  leader.  This  is  an 
excellent  record  in  the  making  of  a  young  country.  Yet  many  of  the 
Governors  were  intensely  unpopular.  In  Lower  Canada  the  feeling 
was  largely  racial,  and  applied  to  all  who  did  not  come  out  with  the 
deliberate  object  of  giving  the  majority  everything  that  they  asked 
for.  In  the  other  Provinces  it  was  due  to  their  identification  with  a 
party  in  the  Colony — the  party  of  pronounced  loyalty  and  of  the 
power  which  goes  with  the  possession  of  office. 

It  is  really  hard  to  see  how  they  could  have  avoided  this.  To 
nearly  all  of  them,  from  Sir  James  Craig  upwards,  the  French  party 
in  Lower  Canada  meant  danger  to  British  interests  and  supremacy ; 
the  Radical  party  in  Upper  Canada  meant  republicanism,  American 
institutions,  and  annexation  efforts  which  might  involve  war  with  the 
United  States.  To  grant  privileges  to  the  more  moderate  and  loyal 
opposition  party  in  the  Maritinie  Provinces  which  it  was  not  deemed 
wise  to  give  in  the  Canadas  was,  of  course,  impossible.  But  many  of 
them  were  not  wise  in  details  of  administration  and  in  the  treatment 
of  opponents  ;  while  the  fact  of  having  no  Premier,  or  responsible 
Ministry,  left  them  open  to  all  the  ills  of  personal  attack  and  political 
bitterness— often  a  sorry  position  for  the  Sovereign's  Representative 
to  be  placed  in. 

The  governing  party  in  these  years  stood  for  much  that  Canadi- 
ans now  hold  dear.  In  Lower  Canada  they  believed  in  the  protection 


216  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

of  the  British  minority  in  a  British  country  and,  judging  by  the 
debates  in  the  French  House  of  Assembly  and  the  character  of  the 
conflict  which  eventually  developed,  the  only  way  this  protection 
could  have  been  maintained  in  that  period  of  constitutional  ignorance 
and  racial  bitterness  was  by  the  policy  of  English  administration  and 
through  the  check  afforded  by  an  English  Council  controlling  the 
legislation  of  a  French  Assembly.  In  the  other  Provinces  they  stood 
for  a  belief,  ground  into  the  very  marrow  of  the.  Loyalist's  bones  by 
experience  in  the  American  Revolution,  that  the  Governor  should 
have  considerable  powers,  should  wield  them  consistently  and  firmly 
and  should  give  no  countenance  to  democracy.  To  the  dominant  party 
in  these  years  democracy  spelt  republicanism  and  the  latter  involved 
everything  which  they  most  detested,  which  they  had  fought  against 
long  and  strenuously  and  to  avoid  the  results  of  which  they  had 
suffered  all  the  privations  of  pioneer  life.  Moreover,  they  believed 
themselves,  not  without  reason,  to  be  the  makers  of  English-speaking 
Canada  and  naturally  resented  the  criticism  of  ignorant  and  indiffer- 
ent new-comers  and  the  free  antagonism  of  Radical  agitators  from 
other  lands. 

VIEWS    AND    MISTAKES    OF    THE    GOVERNING    PARTIES 

Their  mistake  was  in  being  too  autocratic  and  exclusive,  in  not 
trying  to  teach  the  incoming  population  more  of  the  history  of  the 
past,  in  making  the  Government  appear  to  the  masses  as  not  the 
representative  of  a  great  principle,  which  in  large  measure  it  really 
and  honestly  was,  but  as  an  oligarchy  based  upon  privilege  and  formed 
from  a  class.  On  the  other  hand  the  people  had  much  to  complain 
of.  In  Lower  Canada,  French-Canadians  were  practically  excluded 
from  the  Councils  and  the  Bench.  There  were  occasional  irregulari- 
ties in  the  administration  of  justice.  There  was  much  offensiveness 
in  the  autocratic  bearing  of  English  appointees  to  high  position. 
There  was  natural  antagonism  between  the   agricultural  and  rural 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  aiy 

interests  of  the  French  and  the  mercantile  and  city  interests  of  the 
EngHsh.  There  was  a  not  unreasonable  and  intense  popular  desire 
to  control  the  purse-strings  of  the  Province.  There  was  objection 
to  the  officials  holding  several  positions  at  the  same  time,  to  Judges 
sitting  in  the  Legislative  Council,  to  a  Protestant  Bishop  sharing  in 
the  administration  of  secular  affairs. 

Yet  the  settlement  of  these  matters  was  rendered  difficult,  if  not 
impossible,  by  the  position  which  the  French  majority  in  the  Assem- 
bly assumed.  When  a  Frenchman  was  offered  and  accepted  a  place 
on  the  Council,  or  the  Bench,  he  lost  all  influence  and  reputation 
amongst  his  compatriots.  When  any  trivial  fault  was  found  to  be  a 
fact  in  the  administration  of  justice,  it  became  the  basis  for  wild  and 
reckless  onslaughts  upon  all  the  Judges.  The  exclusiveness  of  the 
English  minority  was  well  matched  by  that  of  the  French  majority 
and  all  the  lavish  hospitality  and  evident  good-will  of  successive  Gov- 
ernors could  not  bring  the  races  together.  Over  and  over  again  it 
was  proposed  by  the  Government  that  Judges  should  be  made  inde- 
pendent of  politics  and  excluded  from  seats  in  the  Councils,  but  the 
measure  always  broke  upon  the  rock  of  the  Assembly's  concurrent 
demand  to  control  the  payment  and  amount  of  their  salaries  and, 
therefore,  to  control  the  actual  appointments  and  the  Bench  itself. 

In  Upper  Canada  and  in  the  Provinces  by  the  sea,  as  new  set- 
tlers poured  in,  they  found  a  situation  which  was  naturally  not  alto- 
gether palatable  to  them.  Between  1800  and  181 2  a  large  number  of 
Americans  came  to  Upper  Canada.  In  18 16  disbanded  soldiers  and 
officers  from  the  armies  which  had  so  long  fought  Napoleon  migrated 
in  large  bodies  to  British  America.  In  1831,  there  were  34,000  new 
settlers,  while  in  the  four  years  preceeding  1829  there  had  been 
160,000  of  them.  Into  the  Maritime  Provinces  came  a  large  influx 
of  Scotchmen  and  not  a  few  Americans.  These  new-comers  were  of 
all  schools  of  thought — Tory  and  Whig  and  Radical  and  Republican. 


2i8  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

They  were  of  all  nationalities — English  and  Welsh  and  Scotch  and 
Irish  and  Americans  chiefly.  They  brought  with  them  aggressive 
views  very  frequently  out  of  touch  with,  if  not  bitterly  opposed  to, 
the  opinions  of  the  Loyalist  rulers  of  the  country.  They  found 
themselves  with  practically  no  voice  in  public  affairs  owing  to  the 
veto  of  the  Legislative  Council  upon  Assembly  enactments  and  the 
entrenched  position  of  the  Loyalists  behind  a  bulwark  of  prestige, 
custom,  social  influence,  gradually  growing  wealth  and  the  power  of 
the  strong  and  practically  established  Church  of  England. 

Naturally,  the  Scotch  and  English  Radicals,  all  the  men  who  had 
left  the  Old  Land  from  motives  of  discontent,  the  Irish  Catholics  and 
English  Methodists  and  the  American  settlers  generally,  resented 
the  situation  and  organized,  as  time  went  by,  in  opposition  to  it  and 
to  the  men  who  ruled  the  Province.  They  had  much  of  right  on  their 
side,  but  it  was  marred  in  immediate  effect  and  in  the  eye  of  impar- 
tial history  by  violence  of  language  and  unnecessary  fierceness  of  agi- 
tation ;  by  leaders  who  professed  a  democracy  not  far  from  American 
republicanism  in  character  ;  by  a  disloyalty  amongst  American  set- 
tlers especially,  which  showed  itself  strongly  in  the  stern  struggle  of 
1812  and  in  the  subsequent  troubles  of  1837  ;  by  an  utter  indiffer- 
ence to  the  undoubted  services  of  the  Loyalists  to  the  country  and 
empire  ;  by  demanding  impossibilities  without  clearly  knowing  what 
they  themselves  wanted  ;  by  a  desire  to  obtain  office  at  least  as  strong 
as  the  much-abused  wish  of  the  dominant  party  to  retain  it.  In  the 
Maritime  Provinces  this  analysis  holds  good  except  that  the  actively 
disloyal  factor  has  to  be  eliminated  from  the  purview  as  well  as  some- 
thing of  the  violence  of  agitation  and  sentiment. 

The  details  of  the  struggle  in  the  two  Canadas  which  led  up  to 
the  Rebellion  of  1837  and  which  were  fought  under  the  conditions 
already  outlined  must  be  briefly  told,  though  in  reality  the  story  is  a 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  32Z 

long  and  complicated  one.*  In  the  Lower  Province  the  racial  com- 
plication ran  through  every  measure  proposed  by  the  Assembly  and 
opposed  by  the  Council  and  must  always  be  borne  in  mind  in  reading 
any  narrative  of  the  events  of  that  period.  The  first  important  con- 
flict began  in  1808  with  the  arrival  of  Sir  James  Henry  Craig  as 
Governor-General.  There  had  been  mutterings  of  trouble  before, 
demands  on  the  part  of  the  Assembly  for  fuller  control  of  appoint- 
ments and  of  the  revenues,  and  plentiful  denunciation  of  the  Council 
as  an  alien  and  intrusive  body.  Strong  accusations  of  disloyalty  and 
of  a  desire  for  absolute  French  ascendency  had  been  the  principal 
response.  The  strife  was  lulled  for  a  time  by  the  alarm  of  war  with 
the  States,  but  upon  its  temporary  subsidence  and  the  arrival  of  Sir 
James  Craig  it  burst  forth  with  redoubled  violence.  The  new  Governor 
was  a  brave  and  distinguished  soldier,  but  obstinate,  and  without 
much  tact  or  the  faculty  of  conciliation.  His  tendency  of  thought 
was  to  fear  the  French,  to  dislike  the  placing  of  additional  power  in 
their  hands,  and  to  feel  the  full  force  of  the  arguments  naturally 
brought  before  him  by  his  English  advisers.  The  great  cry  of  the 
moment  was  the  prohibition  of  Judges  sitting  in  the  Councils,  and 
this  took  up  the  time  of  the  Assembly  to  the  signal  detriment  of  the 
questions  of  defence  which  the  Governor  naturally  considered  as 
much  more  important. 

The  House  was  dissolve^  after  several  sessions  of  useless  recrimi- 
nation and  abuse  and  came  back  with  a  stronger  French  membership 
than  before.  Sir  James  and  the  Council  stood  by  the  Judges,  who 
were  being  very  bitterly  and  unjustly  handled,  and  refused  to  debar 
them  from  the  body  in  which  their  presence  was  undoubtedly  useful 
in  those  days  of  limited  culture  and  independence  of  position,  although 

*  Two  bulky  volumes  are  devoted  to  the  Rebellion  in  Upper  Canada  by  John  Charles  Dent,  and  to  the  Life  ot 
W.  L.  Mackenzie  by  Charles  Lindsey  ;  while  F.  X.  Garneau  haS  dealt  at  length  with  the  Lower  Canada  troubles.  These 
and  many  other  volumes  upon  various  branches  of  the  subject  are  valuable  to  the  student,  but  are  nearly  always  one- 
sided in  treatment  thereof. 


222  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

alien  to  the  full  and  free  system  of  to-day.  Added  disputes  arose 
over  the  expenditures  of  the  Government — a  phrase  which  in  this 
period  meant  the  Governor  and  the  inner  circle  of  an  irresponsible 
Executive — until  in  despair  of  obtaining  either  legislation  or  peace, 
the  Legislature  was  again  dissolved. 

THE    DIFFICULTY    OF    THE    GOVERNOR'S    POSITION 

What  was  the  unfortunate  Governor  from  this  time  onward  to 
do  ?  He  could  not  give  control  of  all  the  finances  to  the  Assembly 
without  establishing  a  Ministry  responsible  to  that  body,  and  this  the 
Home  Government  could  not  grant  as  involving  the  handing  of  abso- 
lute power  in  the  Province  over  to  a  French  majority  which  every  day 
showed  itself  more  aggressive  and  more  anti-British.  Moreover,  a  not 
inconsiderable  portion  of  the  revenue  still  came  from  England,  or  from 
the  army  chest,  which  was  more  or  less  under  the  Governor's  con- 
trol. The  election  was  of  the  fiercest  character.  Declamation  and 
proclamation,  secret  meetings  and  treasonable  newspaper  comments, 
the  seizure  of  Le  Canadian  and  imprisonment  of  particularly  violent 
politicians,  followed,  until  the  French  press  described  the  period  as  a 
"  Reign  of  Terror."  The  Assembly  came  back  with  its  French  majority 
increased,  Sir  James  received  a  rebuke  from  the  Colonial  Office — for 
getting  into  trouble  at  a  critical  time,  it  may  be  presumed — and,  in 
the  end,  the  Judges  were  disqualified  from  sitting  in  the  Council.  Bat 
the  greater  financial  issue  remained. 

The  American  war  now  intervened  and  cast  its  mingled  sunshine 
and  shadow  over  everything.  Loyalty,  the  power  of  the  Church,  a 
desire  to  retain  their  special  privileges,  antagonism  to  republican 
institutions,  a  measure  of  appreciation  for  British  generosity,  com- 
bined in  differing  degrees  of  force  to  throw  the  French-Canadians  into 
the  struggle  with  valuable  results  to  British  strength.  Internal  strife 
largely  ceased  during  the  next  two  years  and  the  French  Assembly, 
delighted  over  the  success  at  Chateauguay,  voted  Sir  George  Prevost, 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  333 

as  the  new  Governor-in-Chief,  all  the  grants  of  money  he  desired.  But 
when  the  war  was  over  (before,  indeed,  it  could  be  called  so)  the  old 
trouble  revived  and  the  Assembly  demanded  the  impeachment  of 
Chief  Justice  Sewell  and  Judge  Monk  on  charges  of  official  corruption 
which  could  never  be  proved  and  which  appear  to  have  been  simply  the 
product  of  a  feeling  that  these  men  were  the  principal  antagonists  to 
the  claims  advanced  by  the  popular  body.  Jonathan  Sewell  was  the 
leader  of  the  English  element  in  Lower  Canada  and  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Province  from  1808  to  1838.  His  probity  was  really  above 
reproach,  his  character  and  honour  of  the  highest,  his  culture  and 
attainments  and  social  qualities  most  marked.  But  he  was  an  intense 
believer  in  the  necessity  of  English  supremacy  in  the  Government  of 
Lower  Canada,  a  vigorous  opponent  of  Roman  Catholicism,  an 
unfriendly  critic  of  the  French  character  and  pretentions. 

The  impeachment  was  not,  of  course,  agreed  to  by  the  Legisla- 
tive Council,  and  the  Governor  very  properly  refused  to  take  it  up. 
The  Chief  Justice,  however,  went  to  England  and  defied  his  accusers 
to  prove  their  allegations  at  the  Colonial  Office.  They  did  not 
attempt  to  do  so  in  any  other  court  than  that  of  the  inflamed  public 
opinion  of  the  Province  and  Sewell,  after  being  well  received  in  Lon- 
don, returned  to  Quebec  in  natural  triumph.  He  had  made  his  visit 
memorable  in  a  wider  public  sense  by  suggesting  and  pressing  a 
scheme  for  the  federation  of  British  North  America.  But  the  time 
was,  of  course,  premature.  The  trouble  over  the  finances  now  revived. 
In  1809  the  Assembly  had  offered  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  Civil 
List  in  return  for  a  right  to  eliminate  any  salaries  objected  to.  As 
this  meant  control  of  the  officials  by  a  partisan  Assembly  and  a  dis- 
tinct infraction  of  the  Governor's  prerogative,  as  then  understood,  the 
Council  had  rejected  the  proposal.  Now,  in  1816,  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment suggested  a  compromise  by  which  the  grant  of  a  stated  sum 
was  to  be  made  each  year — as  is  now  the  custom — ^without  changing 


224  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

the  items  of  the  grant.  For  a  brief  period  this  plan  worked  satisfac- 
torily. In  1819,  however,  an  increase  was  asked  and  refused.  The 
Appropriation  Bill,  less  the  extra  amount,  was  rejected  by  the  Council 
and  a  dead-lock  occurred  which  was  followed  by  the  new  election  con- 
sequent upon  the  death  of  King  George  III. 

PAPINEAU  A  POPULAR  ORATOR  AND  AGITATOR 

The  popular  hero  of  the  moment  was  now  Louis  Joseph  Papi- 
neau.  Brilliant  in  oratory  beyond  any  other  product  of  French 
Canada,  splendid  in  physique  and  popular  in  manner,  democratic  in 
belief  and  aristocratic  in  appearance  and  birth,  rash  in  utterance  and 
policy,- he  was  eminently  the  man  to  stir  French  passions  and  preju- 
dices to  a  white  heat  and  to  play  upon  the  ignorance  and  fancies  of 
the  people  as  a  great  musician  plays  upon  the  hearts  of  his  hearers. 
He  became,  in  1820,  Speaker  of  the  Assembly  and  was  in  the  fullest 
possession  of  his  great  personal  powers.  At  the  same  time  there 
came  to  Quebec  the  Earl  of  Dalhousie  as  Governor-General.  He 
was  a  man  of  boundless  hospitality  and  kindliness,  the  most  popular, 
perhaps,  of  Nova  Scotipin  Governors  of  this  period,  the  founder  of 
Dalhousie  College  at  Halifax,  a  well-known  patron  of  agriculture  and 
the  arts.  In  Lower  Canada  he  early  established  an  Agricultural  Asso- 
ciation and  the  Literary  and  Historical  Society  of  Quebec  ;  did  every- 
thing in  his  power  to  continuously  encourage  improved  methods  of 
farming  and  a  better  system  of  education,  and  tried  to  get  the  sup- 
port of  the  Assembly  in  this  work ;  entertained  the  French  and  the 
English  and  endeavoured  to  bring  them  together  in  social  intercourse  ; 
erected,  largely  at  his  own  expense,  the  famous  monument  in  Quebec 
to  the  joint  honour  of  Wolfe  and  Montcalm.  Dalhousie  was,  in 
short,  one  of  the  best  Governors  the  Province  ever  had,  yet  he  was, 
also,  perhaps  the  best-hated. 

He  saw  that  until  a  permanent  Civil  List  was  voted  and  the  per- 
manent officials  of  the  Crown  taken  out  of  the  political   arena,  there 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  225 

could  be  no  peace,  and  this  settlement  he  at  once  demanded  from 
the  Assembly  as  a  right — in  view  of  the  understanding  of  1809. 
Details  of  the  dispute  in  all  its  varied  phases  are  unnecessary  here. 
Suffice  it  that  the  Assembly  peremptorily  rejected  the  proposal  and 
that  during  the  eight  succeeding  years  of  Lord  Dalhousie's  Vice- 
royalty  bitterness  and  increasing  hostility  filled  the  air  with  clamour 
and  complaint.  Papineau  led  the  agitation  against  the  Governor  in 
the  House  and  in  the  country  with  an  ever-increasing  violence  of 
thought  and  language  until  the  Governor  (acting  within  his  legal 
prerogative  and  resenting  some  exceptional  personalities  of  the 
Speaker)  refused  to  accept,  him  on  re-election  to  that  positioni^ 

Matters  then  came  to  a  head,  mass  meetings  were  held  and  huge 
petitions  sent  to  England.  The  Parliament  there  appointed  a  Com- 
mittee to  investigate  the  general  Canadian  situation  and,  in  1828,  it 
reported  that  the  wishes  of  the  French  Assembly  regarding  control 
of  the  Crown  duties  which  were  levied  under  the  Act  of  1774,  should 
be  acceded  to  in  return  for  a  permanent  Civil  List  ;  that  Judges  and 
Bishops  in  all  the  Provinces  should  give  up  their  places  in  the  Legis- 
lative Councils ;  that  the  two  Councils  in  each  Province  should  be 
enlarged  by  the  appointment  of  independent  members — especially 
French  Canadians  in  Lower  Canada  ;  that  Receivers  General  should 
give  security  and  Government  accounts  be  examined  by  the  Assem- 
bly's Auditors. 

Dalhousie  at  once  resigned  and  was  succeeded  by  Sir  James 
Kempt,  with  a  special  mission  of  conciliation  in  Lower  Canada. 
Despite  legislation  along  the  line  of  the  Report,  he  failed,  however, 
to  conciliate  the  still  clamourous  majority  ;  as  did  his  successor.  Lord 
Aylmer.  Rebellion  was  now  in  the  air,  and  Papineau  was  dreaming 
dreams  of  a  great  French-Canadian  Republic,  and  preaching  the 
blessings  and  benefits  of  the  American  system.  From  the  Speaker's 
chair  he  thundered  forth  denunciations  of  monarchy  and  British  rule. 
13 


226  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

On  March  i,  1834,  the  Assembly  passed  the  famous  Ninety-two 
Resolutions.  They  spoke,  of  course,  for  the  French-Canadian  party, 
from  which  all  its  moderate  leaders  had  now  withdrawn,  and  reitera- 
ted every  kind  of  baseless  charge  of  corruption,  fraud  and  tyranny 
against  the  British  Governors  and  Councillors ;  demanded  immediate 
and  entire  control  of  all  lands  and  revenues ;  and  asked,  practically, 
that  the  Province,  with  its  Government,  its  English  minority,  its 
moneys  and  its  commerce  be  handed  over  to  them.  This  document, 
with  the  weighty  answer  of  the  Montreal  Constitutional  Association 
and  other  English  bodies,  soon  reached  London.  Lord  Gosford,  a 
man  of  conciliatory  but  weak  disposition,  was  sent  out  as  Governor- 
General  and  as  Chairman  of  a  Commission  of  Inquiry.  The  Report 
of  the  Commission  was  duly  made  in  1837,  but,  meanwhile,  Papineau 
had  effectually  prevented  it  from  being  of  any  value  and  had  impressed 
himself  more  and  more  upon  the  minds  of  the  people.  Rebellion,  in 
fact,  had  become  inevitable. 

Meantime,  matters  had  also  developed  in  Upper  Canada  through 
a  long  process  of  conflict  in  politics  and  confusion  in  ideas.  Men 
were  fighting  for  equality  of  opportunities  where  there  was  neither 
equality  of  conditions,  of  service  to  the  State,  or  of  British  sentiment 
— in  days  when  the  latter  principle  was  everything  to  the  original 
settler.  They  were  striving  for  the  acceptance  of  principles  which 
they  did  not  themselves  understand  the  application  of,  which  had  not 
,  yet  been  fully  accepted  in  England,  and  which  were  entirely  unfitted 
at  the  time  for  the  crude  institutions,  or  peculiar  conditions,  of  a 
pioneer  community.  The  earliest  subject  of  controversy  were  the 
Clergy  Reserves.  In  Upper  Canada,  two  and  a  half  million  acres  of 
wild  land  had  been  set  aside  under  the  enactment  of  1791  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  "  Protestant  Clergy."  It  was  a  large  body  of  land,  but  there 
was  plenty  more,  and  up  till  the  thirties  this  point  did  not  cause 
much  discussion.   The  great  question  was  the  unfairness  of  excluding 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  227 

Methodists  and  Baptists  and  Presbyterians  from  sharing  in  the  grant. 
And,  from  the  standards  of  to-day  there  was  absolute  justice  in  this 
complaint.  Yet  at  that  time  the  Church  of  England  was,  beyond 
controversy,  the  State  Church  of  the  Province  and  the  correspon- 
dence of  Simcoe  and  Dorchester  and  the  Colonial  Secretaries,  in  the 
years  following  1791,  indicate  clearly  that  it  was  the  intention  of  the 
Imperial  Government  to  make  Upper  Canada  a  mirror  of  the  British 
constitution  and  in  doing  so  to  give  it  an  Established  Church. 

There  was  also  much  in  the  contention  th^t  this  was  the  Church 
of  the  bulk  of  the  Loyalists,  that  it  was  the  pioneer  of  missionary 
work  in  the  English  Provinces,  that  the  grants  by  Parliament  and  the 
large  sums  given  by  the  London  Church  Missionary  Societies  were 
long  the  only  support  to  religious  observance  and  worship  in  the 
country.  And  the  British  Government  honestly  and  naturally  believed 
that  the  best  way  to  encourage  Christianity  in  this  new  land  of  vast 
spaces  and  few  people  was  to  give  it  a  stable  constitutional  basis  and 
a  fixed  financial  support.  Hence  the  origin  of  the  Clergy  Reserves, 
the  consistent  support  given  them  by  the  Tories,  and  the  encour- 
agement afforded  to  the  Church  by  successive  Governors. 

Inevitably,  also,  other  denominations,  as  the  population  increased, 
did  not  like  this  establishment,  and  resented  the  combination  of  State 
and  Church  in  one  strong  social,  religious  and  political  fabric.  After 
a  time  it  was  tacitly  admitted  that  the  Church  of  Scotland  had  a 
right,  as  an  established  body  in  the  Old  Land,  to  share  in  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  Reserves — proceeds  which,  by  the  way,  were  never 
large,  and  in  the  first  years  of  the  dispute  almost  infinitesimal.  But 
the  discussion  dragged  its  way  through  the  political  field  for  many 
years  after  this  period  and  the  Rebellion  itself.  The  material  point 
was  that,  in  some  cases,  these  wild  lands,  which  constituted  the 
seventh  lot  in  every  surveyed  township,  lay  unimproved  amid  sur- 
rounding cultivation.     Toward  the  middle  of  the  century  this  was  an 


«28  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

important   fact  and   a  decided  grievance ;  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
period  it  certainly  could  not  have  been  either. 

Meanwhile,  in  1817,  the  first  Upper  Canadian  agitator  came  on 
the  scene.  He  was  a  Scotchman,  named  Robert  Gourlay,  erratic,  head- 
strong, violent  and  ultimately  insane.  He  came  to  the  new  country 
as  a  failure  in  the  old  one,  found  some  grievances  and  imagined 
others,  stormed  the  ramparts  of  the  Government  with  vigour  and 
some  effect,  and  soon  had  a  very  pretty  little  controversy  in  progress. 
Of  course,  his  conduct  was  deeply  resented  by  the  party  in  power. 
He  was  without  stake  in  the  community,  or  real  knowledge  of  its 
conditions,  and  they  looked  upon  him  as  an  impudent  interloper. 
He  was  arrested  twice  and  acquitted,  then  held  in  jail  for  seven 
months  on  a  charge  of  treason,  found  guilty  by  a  partisan  jury  and 
expelled  from  the  country.  The  whole  affair  was  regrettable  and  his 
treatment  unwise  and  unjust,  but  it  must  be  remembered  in  excuse 
that  just  such  men  had  caused  the  American  Revolution  and  that 
failure  to  deal  summarily  with  them  in  the  beginning  had  made  the 
Brithish  cause  there  a  lost  one.  The  Loyalists  did  not  want  a  repetition 
of  this  issue  in  Canada — and  they  were  living  in  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  not  the  end ! 

CENTRAL    FIGURES    OF    A    TROUBLOUS    PERIOD 

The  three  central  figures  of  the  succeeding  period  were  John 
Beverley  Robinson,  Dr.  John  Strachan,  and  William  Lyon  Macken- 
zie. Robinson  was  a  typical  Loyalist  and  Tory,  proud  of  his  family 
and  his  descent,  cultured  in  attainment,  manner  and  appearance,  hon- 
ourable in  his  public  dealings,  strict  in  his  political  code.  He  had 
fought  in  181 2,  he  had  been  a  vigorous  politician  for  years,  and  was, 
up  to  1829,  the  practical  ruler  of  the  Province.  From  that  date 
until  1862,  he  was  its  respected  Chief  Justice  and  died  a  baronet 
of  the  United  Kingdom.  Dr.  John  Strachan  was  a  militant  eccle- 
siastic of    an    old-time    type.       Strong   and     rugged    in    his   views. 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  231 

intensely  earnest  in  his  support  of  the  Church  of  England  and  the 
Tory  party,  a  vigorous  and  continuous  fighter  in  every  cause  which 
he  took  up,  a  strenuous  publicist  in  voice  and  pen  and  work,  he  was 
a  great  power  in  the  land  from  the  beginning  of  the  century  until 
his  death  in  1867.  A  member  of  the  Legislative  Council  and  a 
politician  of  pronounced  weight,  Bishop  of  Toronto  for  twenty-eight 
years,  founder  of  the  University  of  Toronto — as  King's  College  and 
with  Church  associations — and  then  of  Trinity  University,  he  was, 
in  brief,  a  man  of  the  most  marvellous  energy  and  force  of  char- 
acter. 

Mackenzie  was  of  a  very  different  type.  Enthusiastic  and  rash 
in  temperament,  fickle  in  his  friendship  and  fancies,  without  defined 
standards  of  right  and  wrong,  violent  in  his  dislikes  and  prejudices, 
stubborn  at  times  in  pursuit  of  a  given  aim,  he  was  a  strange  jumble 
of  good  and  bad — a  man  as  far  from  being  the  hero  which  some  of 
his  followers  and  journalistic  admirers  have  made  him,  as  he  was 
from  being  the  villain  which  his  opponents  believed  him.  Poor  he 
always  was ;  honest  in  his  hatred  of  the  "  Family  Compact,"  as  the 
Tories  were  called  from  the  relationship  which  many  of  their  leading 
families  naturally  bore  to  each  other  in  a  limited  community, 
he  undoubtedly  was  ;  sincere  in  his  vague  aspiration  after  a  liberty 
which  too  often  assumed  the  form  of  license,  he  probably  was. 
But  the  bitterness  and  abusiveness  of  his  journalistic  style  have  per- 
haps never  been  equalled,  the  dishonesty  of  his  claim  to  loyalty  was 
clearly  shown  in  later  days,  the  nature  of  his  democracy  found  ulti- 
mate expression  in  the  fiercest  of  annexationist  proclamations  and 
advocacy.     Such  were  the  leading  men  of  this  troublous  period. 

After  the  disappearance  of  Gourlay  incidents  of  complaint  and 
friction  continued  to  recur.  A  British  half-pay  officer,  named  Matth- 
ews, lost  his  pension  upon  report  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  and 
for    encouraging    some    strolling  musicians  to    play  American   airs. 


asa  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

Judge  Willis,  an  English  appointee  to  the  Bench,  plunged  into  poli- 
tics as  an  intense  Radical  and  with  bitter  invective  against  the  party 
in  power,  and  was  very  properly  removed.  An  inn-keeper,  named 
Forsyth,  put  up  a  high  fence  at  Niagara,  in  order  to  obstruct  the  view 
of  the  Falls  and  force  people  to  pay  for  passing  through  his  grounds 
to  see  them.  Sir  Peregrine  Maitland,  the  Governor,  naturally  ordered 
its  removal  and  upon  refusal  sent  soldiers,  who  not  only  tore  down 
the  fence  but  destroyed  a  house  which  was  built  on  the  man's  private 
property.  Forsyth  became  a  popular  hero,  the  Assembly  denounced 
the  action  of  the  Governor,  the  latter  dissolved  the  House,  and  was 
ultimately  recalled.  His  successor,  in  1828,  was  Sir  John  Colborne, 
a  Peninsular  veteran  of  high  character,  great  courage  and  strong 
convictions. 

Gourlay  and  Matthews,  Willis  and  Forsyth  were  now  the  heroes 
of  the  Radical  party  which  had  for  some  time  past  controlled  the 
Assembly,  as  did  the  French  in  Lower  Canada.  Mackenzie  was  the 
leader  of  the  violent  wing  and  the  invectives  and  charges  of  the  press 
under  his  control  grew  so  violent  as  to  almost  justify  the  arrest  and 
imprisonment  of  Editors  which  followed.  The  fact  is  that  abuse 
largely  took  the  place  of  argument,  and  the  attainment  of  office,  or 
the  holding  of  it,  became  more  an  object  than  the  development  of  a 
new  and  workable  system  of  administration.  All  was  confusion  of 
thought  and  policy  amongst  the  Oppositionists,  whilst  the  Govern- 
ment party  were  at  least  consistent  and  united  in  their  antagonism  to 
all  change  and  reform.  They  were  strong  because  of  defined  princi- 
ples and  objects  ;  the  Reformers — as  Radicals  and  Liberals  and  Repub- 
licans had  now  come  to  be  called — were  weak  through  the  absence 
of  constructive  ideas  or  plans. 

In  1830,  the  moderate  Reformers  such  as  Marshal  Spring  Bid- 
well,  Robert  Baldwin,  and  the  eminent  Methodist  preacher,  writer, 
educationalist,  controversialist  and  politician — Dr.  Egerton  Ryerson 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  233 

— began  to  repudiate  the  leadership  of  Mackenzie.  The  new 
Assembly  was,  therefore,  largely  Tory  in  complexion.  Absence  of 
tact  and  the  influence  of  failure  now  made  Mackenzie  not  only  aggres- 
sive but  insulting,  and  the  much-abused  officials  took  advantage  of 
their  majority,  and  of  a  technicality,  to  expel  the  Radical  leader.  Four 
times  he  was  re-elected  by  his  constituents  of  York  and  four  times 
expelled.  He  finally  appealed  to  England,  and  the  Colonial  Secretary 
declared  his  expulsion  illegal.  Still,  the  obstinate  and  angry  majority 
would  not  move  from  its  position. 

Mackenzie  was  now  the  idol  of  a  large  part  of  the  people,  the 
Papineau  of  the  Upper  Province,  though  without  the  eloquence  of 
his  prototype.  He  was  elected  the  first  Mayor  of  York  (Toronto) 
in  1834  and  in  the  same  year  received  a  letter  from  his  friend  and  ally 
in  England,  the  well-known  Joseph  Hume,  in  which  the  latter  declared 
that  the  troubles  in  Canada  could  only  terminate  in  independence 
and  "  freedom  from  the  baleful  domination  of  the  Mother-coun- 
try." The  sentiment  was  not  publicly  disapproved  by  Mackenzie  and 
from  this  time  onward  he  entered  distinctly  upon  the  down-grade 
toward  rebellion.  The  new  House,  however,  had  a  Reform  majority, 
Mackenzie  was  made  Chairman  of  a  "  Special  Committee  of  Griev- 
ances "  and  its  Report,  presented  in  1835,  ^^^  approved  by  the  Assem- 
bly and  forwarded  to  England  as  a  strong  presentation  of  the 
situation  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Reformer.  Anxious,  as  usual, 
to  conciliate,  the  Imperial  Government  recalled  Colborne  as  they  had 
done  Maitland  and  Dalhousie.  It  was  a  repetition  of  the  not  infre- 
quent folly  of  removing  the  instrument  without  changing  the  policy. 

Only  drastic  measures  of  change  could  now  have  done  any 
good  and  conditions  in  Lower  Canada  made  a  responsible  Ministry 
out  of  the  question — even  if  matters  had  been  sufficiently  advanced 
to  warrant  its  establishment  in  Upper  Canada.  The  new  Lieutenant- 
Governor  wg,s  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head,  a  Liberal  in  Home  politics,  an 


234  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

excitable  and  honest  man,  an  administrator  with  fervent  views  upon 
the  value  of  British  connection,  a  natural  ally  of  the  Loyalist  party  in 
the  Colony.  There  followed  an  immediate  conflict.  The  Assembly 
was  dissolved,  Papineau  wrote  to  Mackenzie  a  letter  which  was  dis- 
tinctly republican  in  tone,  the  Governor  appealed  to  the  people  to 
support  the  throne,  the  connection  with  England  and  the  institutions 
of  their  fathers,  and  the  hottest  fight  in  the  early  history  of  the 
Province  resulted  in  a  Tory  victory  and  in  the  personal  defeat  of 
Mackenzie,  BIdwell,  Rolph  and  other  leading  Reformers.  The  issue 
was  now  clear  and  Mackenzie  deliberately  prepared  for  what  he  fan- 
tastically hoped  would  be  another  Revolution — the  birth  of  another 
American  Republic. 

CONTROVERSIES   IN   OTHER   PLACES 

Meanwhile,  in   Nova  Scotia  and   New   Brunswick,  constitutional 
controversies  had  arisen,  but  they  were  milder  in  character  than  those 
of   Upper   Canada,   though   not   dissimilar   in   origin.     The   division 
between  classes  was  not  drawn  so  sharply,  the  immigration  of  Ameri- 
cans was  not  so  considerable  as  in  the  Upper  Province,  and  there  was 
no  racial  controversy  as  in  Lower  Canada.      Between  1816  and  1828, 
Lord  Dalhousie  and  Sir  James  Kempt  governed  in  Nova  Scotia  with 
reasonable   moderation   and   success.      They  devoted    themselves   to 
questions  of  material  and  educational  development  and  the  promotion 
of  Church  of  England  Interests  and  Influence.      This  latter  point  was, 
indeed,  a  cardinal  principle  of  all  the  Governors  of  this  period  and  in 
the   administration  of   nearly  all    British   Colonies.      Their  advisers 
constituted  an  oligarchy,  but  not  an  offensive  one,  and  it  was  only  in 
1830  that  a  really  severe   controversy  began  between  the  Assembly 
and  the  Council  upon  a  qestion  of  taxation.      In  the  end,  and  after  a 
general  election,  the  latter  body  yielded. 

Then  came  trouble  over  the  management  of  local  affairs  in  Hali- 
fax, a  dispute  with  the  Council  which   involved  the  freedom  of  the 


AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION  235 

press,  and  the  rise  in  1835  from  obscurity  into  sudden  fame  of  the 
greatest  Nova  Scotian  of  early  history — Joseph  Howe.  A  journaHst 
by  profession,  he  defended  himself  against  the  charge  of  criminal  libel 
with  an  eloquence  and  force  which  submerged  his  opponents,  carried 
the  jury,  won  the  masses  of  the  people  to  his  side,  and  made  him  a 
popular  idol.  Howe  at  once  entered  the  Assembly,  together  with 
Reformers  such  as  William  Young,  Huntington  and  O'Connor  Doyle, 
and  introduced  his  famous  "  Twelve  Resolutions "  condemning  the 
constitution  and  procedure  of  the  Legislative  Council  and  inaugurat- 
ing an  active  campaign  against  the  existing  system  of  administration. 
They  were  carried  but  subsequently  withdrawn.  Then  came  the 
accession  of  Queen  Victoria  and  the  Rebellion  elsewhere — the  latter 
being  as  strongly  denounced  by  Howe  as  it  could  have  been  by  a 
Beverley  Robinson  or  a  Jonathan  Sewell. 

In  New  Brunswick  the  struggle  between  the  two  Houses  began 
with  the  century  and  the  details   are  too   trivial  and  wearisome  to 
record  in  any  general  review  of  a  situation  which  was  very  similar  to 
that  already  described.    Sir  Howard  Douglas  came  out  as  Lieutenant- 
Governor  in  1824  and,  during  the  seven  years  of  his  administration, 
there  was  a  comparative  calm.    The  lumber  interest  and  ship-building 
industry  had  overshadowed  agriculture  and  the  new  Governor  devoted 
himself  to   promoting   the   latter  and  improving  the   very  backward 
condition  of  education.     To  this  latter  end  he  founded  the  present 
University  of  New  Brunswick.      He  also  had  to  face   the  drought  of 
1825  and  the  terrible  forest  fires  which  terminated  in  the  destruction 
of  the  town  of   Miramichi  and   a  loss  of   four  millions  of  dollars  in 
goods  and  property  and  timber.     Then  came  the  boundary  quarrel 
with  Maine.      Meantime,  Lemuel  Allen  Wilmot  had  attained  distinc- 
tion as  a  Reformer  and  become  as  conspicuous  in  his  own  Province 
as  Howe  and  Mackenzie  and  Papineau  were  in  theirs.     Sir  Archibald 


236  AN  ERA  OF  AGITATION 

Campbell,  the  next  Governor,  found  himself  face  to  face  with  the  old 
and  familiar  troubles  of  revenue  control  and  Council  combination. 

Sundry  reforms  were  inaugurated,  the  Executive  and  Legislative 
Councils  were  separated  and,  after  vigorous  opposition  from  the 
Governor  the  Colonial  Office,  in  1836,  ordered  the  transfer  of  control 
over  all  revenues  to  the  Assembly  and  advised  that  members  of  the 
latter  body  be  called  to  the  Executive.  Sir  Archibald  resigned  rather 
than  accede  to  this  mandate,  but  his  successor — the  judicious,  wise 
and  liberal  Sir  John  Harvey — was  only  too  glad  to  support  the 
change.  Thus,  New  Brunswick  became  the  first  Province  to  estab- 
lish the  principle  of  popular  control  over  public  moneys  although  the 
responsible  Executive  was  again  postponed  by  the  Rebellion  in  the 
Canadas.  Cape  Breton,  in  1820,  had  become  finally  a  part  of  Nova 
Scotia  and  contributed  to  its  public  life  an  active  and  capable  repre- 
sentative in  the  person  of  Richard  J.  Uniacke.  In  little  Prince 
Edward  Island  there  was  no  popular  government  at  this  time  and  not 
very  much  of  an  attempt  at  it.  The  estates  of  the  Island  were  in  the 
hands  of  English  owners  and  its  afifairs  were  largely  controlled  by 
them  through  the  Governors,  while  the  bulk  of  the  population  were" 
tenants  of  the  distant  land-holders. 


CHAPTER  XI 

The  Troubles  of  1837-8 

THE  year  which  commenced  the  remarkable  reign  of  Queen 
Victoria  saw  enacted  in  tTie  Canadas  a  drama  which  had  much 
influence  upon  the  destinies  of  the  future  Dominion,  The 
Rebellion  which  takes  up  so  much  space  in  Canadian  history  was  not 
in  itself  a  ereat  event.  Its  two  chief  leaders  were  men  of  the  brilliant 
irresponsibility  of  character  so  typical  of  similar  spirits  everywhere 
and  the  majority  of  its  adherents  were  sincere  and  honest  in  their 
opinions.  Its  battles,  however,  were  insignificant,  its  following,  in  a 
military  sense,  trivial,  and  its  immediate  results  unimportant.  Yet 
the  event  stands  out  in  the  mind  of  the  Canadian  public  as  the  cause 
and  origin  of  free  government  in  this  country.  How  far  that 
impression  is  correct  the  facts  alone  will  indicate  and  the  story  is 
certainly  one  of  interest. 

HOW    THE    TROUBLE    BEGAN 

By  the  early  part  of  1837  the  events  already  described  had 
reached  a  climax  in  both  the  Canadas  while  the  issue  in  the  Mari- 
time Provinces  had  been  greatly  simplified  by  the  absence  of  any 
actual  sedition  and  by  the  strength  of  character  and  loyalty  of 
sentiment  of  the  great  Nova  Scotian  orator  and  leader,  Joseph 
Howe.  In  Lower  Canada  the  Report  of  the  Royal  Commission  of 
Inquiry  had  been  made  public  after  presentation  to  the  British 
Parliament  and  was  found  to  be  largely  academic  in  its  nature.  Lord 
John  Russell,  as  Colonial  Secretary,  promptly  followed  it  up  with  a 
measure  authorizing  the  Governor-General  to  take  ^142,000  from  the 
Provincial  Treasury  and   thus  pay  the  arrears  of   salary  and  other 

237 


238  THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8 

indebtedness  which  had  accumulated  during  the  five  years  in  which 
the  Assembly  had  refused  to  vote  supplies.  At  the  same  time  it  was 
intimated  by  the  British  Government  that  the  proposal  of  the  French 
for  an  elective  Council  was  inadmissible  as  it  would  give  the  absolute 
control  of  the  popular  side  of  the  Government  into  the  hands  of  one 
race ;  and  for  practically  the  same  reason  the  establishment  of  a 
responsible  Executive  Council  was  declared  to  be  undesirable.  Not 
even  the  Liberals  of  England  were  prepared  -to  place  the  full  power 
of  rule  in  the  hands  of  a  racial  majority  which  talked  and  legislated 
as  did  the  followers  of  Papineau. 

THE    EXCITEMENT    INCREASES 

The  result,  however,  was  deplorable.  The  Montreal  organ  of 
the  risinof  tide  of  rebellion — The  Vindicator — declared  that :  "  Hence- 
forth  there  must  be  no  peace  in  the  Province — no  quarter  for  the 
plunderers.  Agitate!  Agitate!  Agitate!  Destroy  the  revenue! 
Denounce  the  oppressors !  Everything  is  lawful  when  the  funda- 
mental liberties  are  in  danger,"  Meetings  of  the  wildest  character 
were  held  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Richelieu. 
Papineau  paraded  amongst  the  people  whom  his  oratory  stirred  into 
a  white  heat  of  patriotism  and  racial  pride,  and  seemed  for  a  time  to 
really  hold  the  Province  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand.  Lord  Gosford 
finally  awoke  to  the  apparent  seriousness  of  the  issue  and  in  the  late 
spring  issued  a  proclamation  of  warning  against  the  dangers  of  sedi- 
tion and  the  folly  of  the  course  which  was  being  pursued.  Derision 
and  shouts  of  "  Long  live  Papineau,  Our  Deliverer  "  was  the  popular 
response  ;  the  organization  of  societies  called  "  Sons  of  Liberty  "  was 
the  reply  of  the  young  Frenchmen  in  Montreal  and  elswhere  ;  demands 
involving  the  practical  withdrawal  of  British  authority  from  Lower 
Canada  was  the  answer  of  the  Assembly.  The  House  was  at  once 
dissolved  and,  amidst  strong  appeals  from  the  Church  and  the  hasty 
organization  of  the  British  minority,  the  rebellion  commenced. 


THE  HON.  LOUIS  JOSEPH  PAPINEAU 


WILLIAM  LYON   MACKENZIE 


THOMAS  CHANDLER  HALIBURTON 

"  Sam  Slick  " 


SIR  JOHN  GEORGE  BOURINOT, 
K.C.M.G.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D. 


THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8  241 

Owing  very  largely  to  the  influence  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Bishops  and  clergy  the  ensuing  insurrection  was  not  a  general  one. 
Bishop  Lartigue,  of  Montreal,  issued  a  memorable  Mandement  on 
October  24th  to  the  people  of  his  Diocese  and  was  supported  strongly 
in  its  presentation  of  views  by  Bishop  Signay  of  Quebec.  This  docu- 
ment denounced  the  rebel  leaders  as  "evil-minded  men";  declared 
that  "  both  human  and  divine  laws  rise  up  in  condemnation  of  those 
who  by  schemes  of  sedition  and  revolt  endeavour  to  shake  allegiance 
to  Princes  ; "  pointed  out  the  horrors  of  civil  war  and  the  dangers 
of  seed  sown  in  the  days  of  the  French  Revolution  ;  condemned 
unbridled  liberty  and  eulogized  the  rights  of  authority.  There  is  no 
doubt  of  the  wide  influence  exerted  by  these  opinions  and  by  the 
command  to  avoid  open  participation  in  the  rising.  Though  the 
clergy  had  taken  no  pronounced  part  in  keeping  the  people  away 
from  the  sound  of  Papineau's  burning  eloquence  and  the  temptations 
of  his  policy — perhaps  it  wo.uld  have  been  impossible  to  do  so — they 
now  did  everything  in  their  power  to  hold  them  back  from  the  extremity 
of  insurrection  and  even  suggested  to  the  Executive  Council  the  dis- 
cussion of  a  compromise.  But  it  was  now  too  late  to  avert  bloodshed 
and  a  year  or  more  of  factious  disorder. 

Meanwhile,  in  Upper  Canada,  events  had  been  proceeding  with 
similar  rapidity  though  not  with  the  same  degree  of  seriousness. 
There,  the  minority  in  favour  of  actual  violence  was  very  small, 
though  very  noisy.  Mackenzie  was  not  as  big  a  man  in  either  brains 
or  body  as  was  Papineau  and  the  class  he  had  to  draw  upon  for  sedi- 
tion was  infinitely  smaller  than  in  Lower  Canada.  His  newspaper, 
however,  was  clever  in  its  insistent  bitterness  and  continuous  denun- 
ciation ;  while  the  real  abuses  which  existed  gave  excuse  for  strong 
opposition  to  the  powers  of  the  day  though  in  Upper,  as  in  Lower 
Canada,  they  did  not  give  sufficient  ground  for  rebellion. 


242  THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8 

On  July  31,  1837,  Mackenzie  published  in  his  paper,  The  Con- 
stitution, a  document  which  he  called  the  Reformer's  Declaration  of 
Rights  and  it  affords  a  pretty  clear  statement  of  his  position.  It  was, 
in  the  first  place,  based  upon  the  style  of  the  American  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  had  much  the  same  end  in  view  although 
it  was  much  more  violent  and  infinitely  less  dignified  than  the  appa- 
rent source  of  its  inspiration.  It  teemed  with  references  such  as  that 
to  the  "  baneful  domination  "  of  Great  Britain  and  the  "  mockery  of 
human  government"  under  which  "we  have  been  insulted,  injured 
and  brought  to  the  brink  of  ruin."  Many  moderate  Liberals  laughed 
at  it.  Ryerson,  Baldwin,  Bidwell  and  other  Liberal  leaders  sharply 
denounced  it.  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head  looked  upon  it  as  the  mere 
froth  and  foam  of  an  agitation  which  must  come  to  a  head — and  the 
sooner  the  better.  Mackenzie  went  on  with  his  wild  work  of  drilling 
small  bodies  of  men  and  organizing  "  vigilance  committees  "  to  carry 
afar  the  doctrines  of  his  "  Declaration  "  with  its  list  of  grievances,  its 
repudiation  of  British  allegiance,  its  pronouncement  in  favour  of  the 
rebels  of  Lower  Canada  and  its  fervent  sympathy  with  American 
institutions. 

The  Lieutenant-Governor  responded  to  these  menaces  with  a  quiet 
contempt  and  a  perfect  assurance  in  the  loyalty  of  the  masses  of 
the  people  for  which  he  has  been  frequently  condemned.  So  strongly 
did  he  feel  the  futility  and  farcical  nature  of  the  whole  movement 
that  he  sent  all  the  regular  troops  in  the  Province  down  to  Lower 
Canada,  where  they  appeared  to  be  greatly  needed,  and  expressed 
his  intention  to  depend  upon  the  loyal  volunteers  and  militia  of  the 
Province — a  dependence  which  was  certainly  not  misplaced  and  a 
policy  which  seems  to  have  been  justified  by  the  result.  He  believed 
that  some  sort  of  a  rising  was  inevitable  and  that  until  it  took  place, 
and  the  steam  of  existing  discontent  was  blown  off  in  the  fiasco  which 
must  follow,  there  would  be  neither  peace  nor  order  in  the  land.  The 


THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8  243 

sooner  it  took  place  the  better,  therefore,  and  the  less  British  troops 
had  to  do  with  its  suppression  the  better  also  for  future  loyalty 
amongst  the  people  as  a  whole.  In  this  he  was  rig^ht,  and  in  the 
belief  that  the  Province  would  never  prosper  until  certain  agitators 
were  removed  from  the  sphere  of  popular  influence,  he  was  also  right. 
Such  was  the  situation  in  the  two  Canadas  when  the  flash  of  folly, 
which  has  been  termed  the  rebellion  of  1837,  took  place. 

BEGINNING    OF    THE    REBELLION 

The  rebellion  began  in  Lower  Canada  in  October,  1837  and  the 
centre  of  disafl^ection  was  the  country  along  the  banks  of  the 
Richelieu.  At  St,  Charles,  the  half-armed,  partially  drilled,  and 
utterly  deceived  habitants  gathered  in  force.  At  St.  Denis,  nearby, 
was  a  similar  body  under  Dr.  Wolfred  Nelson,  a  Montreal  physician 
who  had  early  enrolled  himself  under  the  inflammatory  banner  of 
Papineau.  Sir  John  Colborne,  who  had  come  back  to  Canada  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  sent  expeditions  to  scatter  the  rebels  at  these 
points.  St.  Denis  was  attacked  by  a  force  under  Colonel  Gore  which, 
amid  circumstances  of  considerable  difficulty,  was  temporarily 
repulsed.  St.  Charles  was  easily  occupied  by  Colonel  Weatherell, 
and  the  rebels  scattered  like  chafl^.  Meanwhile,  a  small  body  of  loyal 
cavalry  had  been  attacked  between  these  places  and  Lieutenant 
Weir  captured  by  a  French  contingent.  In  trying  to  escape  he  was 
shot  and  then  hacked  to  pieces  under  conditions  of  extreme  bru- 
tality. His  murderers  were  afterwards  tried  but  acquitted  by  a  French 
jury.  News  of  the  success  at  St.  Charles  soon  reached  St.  Denis,  and 
the  French  there  melted  away  without  giving  fresh  trouble  to  the 
British  troops. 

At  St.  Eustache,  north  of  Montreal,  a  few  rebels  made  a  brave 
and  determined  stand  under  Dr.  Chenier;  and  not  until  the  church 
in  which  they  were  fighting  had  fallen  in  blazing  ruins  about  their 
heads  did  the  deluded  peasants  try  to  escape.     It  was  then  too  late, 


244  THE  TROUBLES  OF  183 7-8 

however,  and  nearly  all  died — including  their  leader  to  whom,  many 
years  afterward,  the  French  people  of  Montreal  raised  a  statue. 
This  was  the  end  of  the  actual  insurrection,  although  Nelson  and 
Cote  and  a  few  other  leaders  crossed  the  American  frontier,  issued 
proclamations  announcing  a  new  republic  and,  in  1838,  gathered  to- 
gether large  bands  of  raiders  for  the  purpose  of  invasion.  On  the 
Beauharnois  Canal  they  destroyed  a  steamer  and,  taking  advantage 
of  Lord  Durham's  leniency  during  his  few  months'  administration, 
nearly  provoked  another  rebellion.  At  Laprairie,  Nelson  succeeded 
in  getting  2,000  men  together,  but  Colborne  at  once  sent  a  large  force 
against  him  and,  after  an  encounter  at  Odelltown,  he  fled  back  to  the 
States.  Colborne  was  now  Governor-General,  and  was  determined 
that  there  should  be  no  more  doubt  as  to  the  substantial  difference 
between  loyalty  and  treason. 

Courts-Martial  were  established — the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  being 
meantime  suspended — the  principal  rebels  were  tried,  forty-nine  of 
them  condemned  to  transportation  and  eighty  to  death.  Only  eleven 
actually  suffered  the  extreme  penalty  and  they  were  selected  from  men 
who  had  deliberately  attempted  to  raise  rebellion  a  second  time  after 
having  been  once  pardoned,  or  who  had  committed  personal  crimes  in 
addition  to  acts  of  treason.  Papineau,  Nelson,  O'Callaghan  and 
Brown,  who  had  fled  to  the  States  at  an  early  stage  of  the  rising, 
were  convicted  of  high  treason.  Papineau  went  to  live  in  France 
and  in  1844  was  allowed  to  return  to  Canada  without  attracting  atten- 
tion— only  to  find  his  influence  gone  and  his  reputation  a  mere  shadow 
of  the  greatness  which  had  fled  forever  in  the  flame  of  his  own  folly. 

The  object  of  the  whole  agitation  and  action  in  Lower  Canada 
had  become  clear  as  the  rebellion  "approached,  and  Lord  Gosford, 
writing  to  the  Colonial  Secretary  on  September  2,  1837,  had  declared 
that :  "  It  is  evident  the  Papineau  faction  will  not  be  satisfied  until 
the  English  Government  have  put  it  in  a  position  to  carry  its  projects 


THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8  445 

into  execution,  viz.:  the  separation  of  this  country  from  England  and 
the  proclamation  of  a  republic."  The  farce  of  constitution-mongering 
and  claims  for  a  system  which  the  leaders  did  not  understand  and 
only  wanted  for  employment  against  British  influence  and  authority 
was  now  over ;  and  the  bubble  created  by  brilliant  rhetoric  play- 
ing upon  French  passions  and  prejudices  was  pricked  by  the  stand 
of  the  Church  and  the  sound,  of  British  cannon.  The  hierarchy 
indeed,  took  strong  ground  in  their  condemnation.  "  What  misery, 
what  desolation,"  exclaimed  the  Bishop  of  Montreal,  "  is  spread 
broadcast  through  many  of  our  fields  and  homes  since  the  scourge  of 
civil  war  has  ravaged  a  happy  country  where  abundance  and  joy 
reigned,  with  order  and  safety,  before  brigands  and  rebels  by  force  of 
sophistries  and  lies  had  led  astray  a  part  of  the  population." 

The  responsibility  for  what  occurred  rests  with  the  men  thus 
characterized  by  their  own  Church;  with  men  such  as  Papineau,  Cote, 
Nelson,  O'Callaghan  and  Chenier.  As  Dr.  N.  E.  Dionne,  the  cul- 
tured Provincial  Librarian  at  Quebec  has  well  said  :  "  All  these  are 
the  true  culprits  and,  I  dare  say,  the  only  culprits."*  But  the  ignor- 
ant suffered  for  the  machinations  and  the  crazy  ambitions  of  the  cul- 
tured. Blame  must  also  be  laid  upon  men  who  afterwards  became 
prominent  and  loyal  citizens,  but  who  in  their  youthful  days  suc- 
cumbed to  the  brilliancy  and  fascination  of  Papineau  and  fell  victims 
to  his  folly — men  such  as  Sir  George  Etienne  Cartier,  the  Hon.  A.  N. 
Morin,  the  Hon.  D.  B.  Viger,  Sir  L.  H.  Lafontaine,  and  others  who 
followed  their  leader  to  the  verofe  of  rebellion  and  then  shrank  back 
from  the  full  fruition  of  his  policy. 

In  Upper  Canada,  during  this  period,  the  insurrection  had 
been  equally  futile  and  still  more  feeble.  When  the  rising  com- 
menced in  Lower  Canada  matters  were  in  readiness,  as  far  as  they 
could  ever  be   under  the  hopeless   circumstances  of  the   case,  in  the 

*  Article  in  Canada  :  An  Encyclopcedia  of  the  Country,  vol.  3. 
14 


246  THE  TROUBLES  OF  iSjy-S 

Upper  Province.  A  series  of  two  hundred  meetings  had  been 
addressed  by  Mackenzie  in  fiery  and  uncontrollable  language ;  drilling 
and  rifle  shooting  had  been  freely  practised  ;  and,  in  November, 
1,500  persons  had  volunteered  for  active  service  who  were  stated  to 
be  efficiently  trained.  Arrangements  were  then  made  to  march  a 
force  upon  Toronto,  to  seize  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  4,000 
muskets  which  were  kept  in  the  City  Hall  under  the  protection  of  a 
small  guard  of  volunteers,  and  to  proclaim  a  republic  with  Dr.  John 
Rolph — a  clever,  adroit  politician  who  had  so  far  kept  upon  both 
sides  of  the  fence — as  Provisional  President. 

THE    RISING    IN    UPPER    CANADA 

It  was  thought  that  after  this  had  been  consummated  the  rest  of 
the  Province  would  accept  the  new  constitution  without  further 
trouble.  A  more  vain  and  silly  project,  upon  the  surface,  was  never 
hatched  in  a  treasonable  brain.  The  excuse  for  it,  however,  is  that 
help  was  expected  and  promised,  and  afterwards  given  when  too  late, 
from  the  States.  Meanwhile,  on  December  4th,  after  gathering  at  a 
place  called  Montgomery's  Tavern  in  such  force  as  they  could  muster, 
the  rebels  marched  upon  the  city  only  to  take  alarm  at  the  appear- 
ance of  a  picket  of  volunteer  troops  and  to  hastily  retreat.  During 
the  next  few  days,  however,  their  numbers  increased  to  some  1,000 
men,  armed  with  guns,  scythes,  pitchforks,  axes  and  anything  they 
could  lay  their  hands  upon.  Colonel  Moodie,  a  Peninsular  veteran, 
and  a  much  respected  citizen,  attempted  to  ride  through  their  lines 
with  the  soldier's  characteristic  contempt  for  a  mob  in  arms,  and  was 
shot  dead.  But  Toronto  was  now  ready  for  them  ;  every  man  of 
influence  and  nearly  every  citizen  was  shouldering  his  musket,  from 
the  Chief  Justice  down ;  and  loyal  militia,  including  the  gallant 
"  Men  of  Gore  "  as  the  Hamilton  volunteers  were  called,  were  pour- 
ing in  from  all  directions.  On  December  7th,  Colonel  (afterwards 
Sir  A.  N.)  McNab,  marched  out  to  attack  the  rebel  force.     It  was 


THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8  247 

under  the  command  of  Samuel  Lount,  a  blacksmith  by  occupation, 
and  had  been  drilled  for  some  time  by  Colonel  Van  Egmond,  an  old- 
time  officer  in  the  French  army  under  Napoleon.  The  Lieutenant- 
Governor  offered  the  insurgents  a  last  chance  to  surrender  and  to  give 
up  the  mad  attempt  at  rebellion.  It  was  refused  by  Mackenzie  and  the 
500  militia  under  McNab,  dressed  in  homespun  but  none  the  less 
inspired  with  traditions  of  Britain's  thin  red  line,  advanced  to  the 
attack.  After  a  single  hot  exchange  of  fire  and  a  slight  skirmish  the 
fiofht  was  over  and  the  rebels  scattered. 

Like  Papineau,  Mackenzie  fled  at  the  first  shot  and,  after  various 
adventures,  reached  the  American  frontier.  At  Navy  Island,  above 
Niagara  Falls,  he  established  his  mockery  of  a  government,  and  soon 
sympathizers  from  both  sides  of  the  line  were  flocking  to  join  him. 
At  Toronto,  militia  and  volunteers  continued  to  arrive  in  such  num- 
bers as  to  actually  embarass  the  Governor  and  to  most  fully  prove 
the  wisdom  of  his  belief  that  the  Province  would  stand  by  him  when 
the  inevitable  rising  took  place.  Some  of  them  were  sent  under 
McNab  to  watch  the  rebels  at  Navy  Island  and,  incidentally,  seized  a 
steamer  called  the  Caroline  which  was  supplying  Mackenzie  with 
munitions  of  war,  from  under  the  guns  of  an  American  fort  and  sent 
her  blazing  over  the  F'alls  of  Niagara.  Many  months  later,  after  the 
sympathies  of  the  border  cities  of  the  United  States  had  exhausted 
the  supply  of  men  and  arms  and  material  available  for  the  insurrection, 
the  President  issued  a  proclamation  warning  the  people  against  attack- 
ing a  friendly  State.  Mackenzie,  meantime,  had  left  Navy  Island, 
and  was  arrested  and  sentenced  to  eighteen  months'  imprisonment  by 
an  Albany  (N.  Y.)  jury. 

But  conspiracies  in  American  cities  went  on,  so-called  Hunter's 
Lodges  were  organized  and  drilled  in  large  bodies  of  men,  and 
invaded  the  Canadian  Provinces  at  different  times  and  places  during 
the  ensuing  two  years.     It  was  a  desultory  and  guerilla  warfare  which 


248  THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8 

lacked  organization  and  a  leader  with  brains,  but  none  the  less  did  it 
cause  the  Governments  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  much  worry  and 
expense  and  the  border  settlements  much  o.f  suffering  and  natural 
fear.  From  Ogdensburg,  Buffalo  and  Detroit  expeditions  were  sent, 
one  numbering  1,500  filibusters  and  rebels,  but  all  were  routed,  or 
driven  back  by  the  mere  report  of  advancing  militia.  At  Prescott, 
across  the  St.  Lawrence  and  near  Kingston,  a  band  of  raiders  under 
the  Polish  refugee,  Von  Schultz,  were  attacked  in  one  of  the  stone 
mills  of  the  neighbourhood,  in  which  they  had  taken  refuge  and,  after 
a  vigorous  resistance,  were  captured  by  a  British  and  Canadian  force. 
The  occasion  of  the  succeeding  trial  was  notable  for  the  defence  of 
Von  Schultz  by  a  young  lawyer  named  John  A.  Macdonald  and  for 
it  being  his  first  case.  The  leader,  however,  and  eleven  of  his  follow- 
ers were  convicted  and  hung. 

The  most  notable  of  these  incidents  was  the  last.  In  December, 
1839,  there  marched  through  the  crowded  and  cheering  streets  of 
Detroit  a  band  of  450  raiders  on  their  way  to  capture  the  Canadian 
town  of  Windsor  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  They  did  so, 
burning  a  vessel  and  some  houses,  capturing  a  small  guard  of  militia 
and  murdering  a  peaceful  citizen  who  refused  to  join  their  ranks. 
Then  they  marched  to  Sandwich  and  met  their  fate  in  the  person  of 
Colonel  John  Prince — a  Loyalist  of  the  Loyalists,  a  stern  soldier  of 
the  old  school,  a  man  with  an  utter  contempt  for  rebels,  and  one  who 
cared  nothing  for  the  fickle  fancies  of  public  opinion  when  a  matter 
of  duty  appeared  before  him.  With  200  men  he  met  and  routed  the 
invaders  and,  in  consequence  of  finding  the  body  of  a  respected  sur- 
geon named  Hume  who  had  been  wantonly  killed  by  the  rebels,  he 
ordered  four  prisoners  to  the  front  and  had  them  shot.  It  was  stern 
justice  and  afterwards  met  with  condemnation  from  the  many  people 
who  seem  to  think  that  invasions  and  wars  and  rebellions  can  be  put 
down  with  rose-water.     Colonel  Prince  cared  nothing  for  this  kind  of 


JAMES  BRUCE 

8th  earl  of   ELGIN  AND  KINCARDINB 

Governor-GcDcral  of  British  America,  1847 -61 


I 


THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8         .  251 

clamour,  nor  did  Sir  George  Arthur,  the  new  Lieutenant-Governor  in 
place  of  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head.  When  the  final  trials  were  over  the 
latter  deliberately  allowed  the  law  to  take  its  course  and  two  of  the 
rebel  leaders — Lount  and  Matthews — who  had  failed  to  escape  to  the 
States,  were  executed  as  a  result  of  their  conviction  and  sentence. 

RESULTS    OF    THE    RISING 

This  was  the  end  of  the  trquble  in  the  Upper  Province.  It  had 
never  been  a  serious  rising  as  regards  numbers,  or  influence,  or  possi- 
ble result.  It  had  brought  good  out  of  evil  by  creating  a  re-action 
against  the  irresponsible  utterances  of  demagogues  which  were  as 
injurious  to  the  country,  even  from  the  standpoint  of  present  beliefs, 
as  was  the  irresponsible  government  of  men  who  were  at  least  honour- 
able and  honest.  It  had  shown  the  rock-bottom  of  popular  loyalty 
beneath  all  the  froth  and  foam  of  foolish  public  speeches.  It  had 
separated  the  moderate  and  loyal  Reformers,  or  Liberals,  who  were  will- 
ingtoworkandwaitforchanges  which  were  bound  to  come  in  time,  from 
the  fantastic  advocates  of  independence  and  republicanism.  It  had 
made  clear  the  fact  that  a  rebellion  upon  American  soil  is  not  always 
successful,  and  it  had  once  more  shown  how  right  the  Loyalists  were 
in  fearing  American  influence  upon  Canadian  politics  and  govern- 
ment. It  had  proved  that  nothing  was  to  be  gained  by  violence  and 
that  the  best  way  to  obtain  honest  reform  was  not  by  abusing  an 
honest  opponent  but  by  presenting  to  the  people  a  plain  and  loyal 
policy  in  opposition  to  the  clearly  understood  Toryism  of  the  domi- 
nant party. 

The  Rebellion  did  not  bring  about  responsible  government. 
The  Imperial  authorities  had  already  admitted  the  principle  in  New 
Brunswick  and  it  was  only  the  personal  opposition  of  Sir  Archibald 
Campbell  and  the  coming  menace  of  insurrection  elsewhere  that 
delayed  its  adoption.  In  conjunction  with  the  preceding  violence  and 
disloyalty    of    Papineau    and     Mackenzie   and    their   associates,  the 


252  '      THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8 

Rebellion  retarded  rather  than  advanced  the  consummation  of  popular 
government.  The  whole  correspondence  of  this  period  between  the 
Governors  and  the  Colonial  Office  reveal  a  sensitive  desire 'to  con- 
ciliate Canadian  Frenchmen  and  Canadian  Radicals.  The  recall  of 
Governor  after  Governor  indicates  still  further  the  strength  of  this 
feeling,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  had  the  agitation  for  responsible 
government  been  conducted  with  moderation  and  based  upon  a  genuine 
conception  of  what  was  wanted  the  desired  result  would  have  come,  not 
only  without  rebellion  and  with  pleasure  on  the  part  of  the  Home  Gov- 
ernment, but  without  the  years  of  friction  which  were  still  to  follow. 

So  far  as  Great  Britain  was  concerned  concession  after  conces- 
sion had  been  made.  The  constitution,  under  the  terms  of  the  Act 
of  1 791,  allowed  the  union  of  Church  and  State,  but  the  principle  was 
not  pressed  except  by  the  personal  influence  of  the  Governors  and 
did  not  ultimately  prevail.  The  exclusive  privileges  claimed  by  the 
Church  of  England  were  not  maintained.  The  connection  of  the 
Judges  with  the  Legislative  Councils  was  severed.  Obnoxious  laws 
were  repealed  and  minor  causes  of  complaint  removed.  The  Indian 
administration  under  Imperial  auspices  was  admirable  and  large 
sums  were  paid  from  the  British  Exchequer  for  Indian  maintenance. 
The  expense  of  keeping  large  military  forces  in  the  country  as  a  result 
of  the  unpleasant  feeling  in  the  States  was  borne  as  cheerfully  as  had 
been  the  enormous  cost  of  the  War  of  181 2.  Popular  rights  of  pub- 
lic meeting  had  been  fully  granted  despite  the  opposition  of  the  gov- 
erning class.  A  tax  had  been  placed  on  wild  lands  so  as  to  prevent 
their  being  held  by  speculators.  Commission  after  Commission  had 
come  out  to  try  and  solve  a  situation  which  the  men  on  the  spot  did 
not  fully  understand  and  which  the  Colonial  Office  can  hardly  be 
blamed  for  not  finding  as  clear  as  daylight. 

In  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  only  effect  of  the  Rebellion  had 
been  to  produce  an  echo   of  the  loyalty  shown  in  Upper  Canada  by 


THE  TROUBLES  OF  1837-8  253 

the  masses  and  in  Lower  Canada  by  the  Church  and  the  classes. 
Major-General  Sir  John  Harvey,  in  New  Brunswick,  had  offered  his 
Legislature  and  Sir  John  Colborne  to  lead  the  militia  of  the  Province 
against  the  rebels,  if  help  should  be  needed,  and  declared  to  the  latter 
that  he  could  depend  upon  New  Brunswick  to  a  man.  The  Legisla- 
ture afterwards  expressed  its  thanks  to  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head  and 
the  gallant  volunteers  of  Upper  Canada  for  what  they  had  done  in 
suppressing  the  insurrection.  The  Nova  Scotia  authorities  also 
offered  men  and  money. 

Now,  however,  that  the  serious  troubles  were  over  others  seemed 
inevitable.  The  constitution  in  Lower  Canada  had  been  suspended, 
the  two  Provinces  were  under  the  government  of  strong  military  men 
such  as  Colborne  and  Arthur,  the  Upper  Canadian  Tories  were  tri- 
umphant at  the  polls  and  apparently  entrenched  in  power  for  a  long  time 
to  come,  the  French-Canadians  were  silent  and  somewhat  sullen,  the 
English  Radicals  and  American  Republicans  were  scattered  and 
broken  in  influence.  This  situation  clearly  could  not  last  long  and 
it  required  a  man  of  exceptional  ability  to  re-organize  affairs  and  to 
straighten  out  the  complicated  issues  of  the  time.  That  man  came 
in  the  person  of  Lord  Durham. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Lord  Durham  and  the  Union  of  the  Canadas 

ONE  of  the  most  picturesque  and,  perhaps,  the  most  command- 
ing of  figures  in  Canadian  history  is  that  of  John  George 
Lambton,  Earl  of  Durham.  Of  high  pohtical  reputation  at 
home  and  with  a  future  in  which  the  Liberal  Premiership  was  sup- 
posed to  be  within  his  reach  ;  of  attractive  and  striking  personality 
and  with  an  Earldom  won  by  services  to  the  state  ;  he  flashed  like  a 
meteor  over  the  disturbed  scene  of  Canadian  affairs  in  1838.  With- 
in a  period  of  six  months  he  illumined  the  prolonged  record  of  Can- 
adian controversy  and  agitation  with  a  brilliantly  comprehensive 
Report  in  which  he  laid  down  the  principles  of  Colonial  constitutional 
government  for  the  first  and  for  all  time  ;  provided  the  policy  upon 
which  the  administration  of  a  great  Empire  is  to-day  based  ;  earned  a 
reputation  which  is  world-wide  in  extent.  Then  he  returned  home  in 
a  sudden  burst  of  passion  to  die  a  disappointed  death  within  a  few 
months  and  without  realizing  the  great  place  he  had  made  for  himself 
in  the  annals  of  his  country. 

THE    RIGHT    MAN    IN    THE    RIGHT    PLACE 

Delicate  in  health,  sensitive  and  high-strung  in  temperament, 
imperious  in  conduct  and  manner,  he  was  eminently  fitted  to  shine  in 
some  great  Eastern  pro-consulate  where  power  would  have  been  in 
his  own  hands  and  the  petty  pin-pricks  of  political  enemies  and  critics 
would  not  have  continually  wounded  his  personal  feelings.  He  was 
not  suited  to  the  conflicts  of  public  life,  and  despite  his  position  and 
brilliant  abilities  could  never  have  really  reached  the  position  which 
his  friends  had  hoped  for  him.     Yet,  for  Canada,  strange  as  it  may 

254 


LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  AD  AS  255 

seem,  he  was,  at  the  moment  of  his  coming,  the  right  man  in  the  right 
place.  • 

The  popular  respect  for  the  Queen's  Representative  which  was 
usually  shown,  if  not  always  felt,  had  been  somewhat  injured  by  the 
prolonged  and  savage  attacks  of  Papineau  upon  Dalhousie  and  Gos 
ford,  and  of  Mackenzie  upon  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head,  and  Lord  Dur- 
ham provided  a  splendid  and  stately  setting  for  the  position.  Too 
many  of  the  Governors-General  had  received  scant  support  in  their 
policy  from  the  Colonial  Office,  and  their  limited  powers,  or  quickly 
changed  instructions,  had  prevented  continuity  of  administration  and 
system.  Lord  Durham  came,  it  was  announced,  with  full  authority  to 
settle  the  country,  to  assuage  animosities  and  to  prevent  further  trouble 
— by  the  strong  hand  if  necessary. 

HIS    POLICY    AND    SHORT    ADMINISTRATION 

The  Tories  and  Loyalists  were  pleased  with  his  dignity  of  de- 
meanour, his  great  reticence,  his  stately  ceremonial  wherever  he  went, 
his  evident  earnestness  and  unremitting  industry.  The  Liberals  and 
discontented  section  were  charmed  with  his  reputation  for  Liberalism, 
his  refusal  to  come  under  the  control  of  the  dominant  party,  and 
his  keen  investigation  of  grievances.  The  French  were  more  easily 
and  naturally  impressed  by  the  splendour  of  his  hospitality  and  vice- 
regal state  than  perhaps  any  other  part  of  the  population. 

Hence  it  was  that  when  Lord  Durham  landed  at  Quebec  on  May 
29th,  1838,  as  the  special  High  Commissioner  of  his  Sovereign  and 
as  Governor-General  of  all  British  America,  he  entered  upon  what 
seemed  to  promise  a  pre-eminently  successful  administration  amid 
conditions  of  admitted  difficulty.  He  re-organized  temporarily  the 
government  of  Lower  Canada ;  but  without  the  constitution  which 
had  been  suspended  by  Sir  John  Colborne.  He  had  with  him  an 
excellent  staff,  chief  of  whom  was  Mr.  Charles  Buller,  and  these  men 
joined   in   conducting  the   inquiries  which  were    initiated    in   every 


256  LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  AD  AS 

direction.  With  restless  energy  he,  himself,  travelled  over  the  country, 
investigated  every  possible  gfievance,  wrote  innumerable  despatches 
and  charmed  everyone  with  a  boundless  hospitality.  A  meeting  of 
the  Lieutenant-Governors  of  the  various  Provinces  was  called  and 
much  was  learned  from  the  discussions  and  explanations  which  fol- 
lowed ;  while  Lord  Durham,  with  an  eye  upon  the  far-distant  future, 
which  then  seemed  as  impossible  as  a  federation  of  South  Africa 
seems  difficult  to-day,  suggested  the  federated  union  of  all  the 
Provinces  as  a  policy  which  would  ensure  peace  and  progress. 

His  great  trouble,  however,  was  with  the  prisoners  who  crowded 
the  jails  of  the  country  and  with  the  rebel  leaders  who  had  escaped 
and  might  return  at  any  moment  to  renew  disturbance  and  promote 
discontent.  Complete  amnesty  he  deemed  unwise  and,  as  it  eventu- 
ally turned  out,  his  alleged  harshness  was  not  sufficient  to  prove  a 
necessary  warning.  The  less  important  prisoners  were  freed  upon 
promise  of  good  behaviour,  but  with  the  ringleaders  who  had  escaped 
to  the  States  he  could  do  nothing  except  prohibit  their  return  under 
penalties.  From  the  general  amnesty  he  also  excluded  eight  prison- 
ers of  whom  the  chief  was  Dr.  Wolfred  Nelson.  There  being  no 
trial  by  jury  in  the  Province  of  Lower  Canada,  as  a  result  of  the  sus- 
pension of  its  constitution,  no  possibility  of  such  a  thing  under  exist- 
ing popular  opinion,  and  no  law  covering  the  state  of  the  case.  Lord 
Durham  took  the  matter  into  his  own  hands  as  Judge  and  jury  and, 
with  a  legitimate  belief  that  his  full  and  yet  vague  authority  entitled 
him  to  discretionary  action,  banished  these  eight  rebels  to  Bermuda 
on  pain  of  execution  for  high  treason  should  they  return. 

Then  came  the  complication  which  seems  to  have  been  inevita- 
ble whenever  a  strong  ruler  in  Colonial  history  has  struck  out  a 
strong  policy  for  himself  and,  therefore,  come  into  conflict  with  a 
weak  or  ignorant  Colonial  Minister  at  home.  Lord  Dorchester  and 
Lord  Dalhousie  in  Canada  had  already  suffered  in  this  way  and  Sir 


LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  AD  AS  257 

George  Grey  and  Sir  Bartle  Frere  are  memorable  instances  in  South 
Africa.  Such  weakness  is  not  likely  to  exist  or  to  be  influential  again, 
under  present  conditions,  but  it  served  to  ruin  the  happiness  and  the 
life-work  of  this  sincere  and  sensitive  statesman.  His  action  was 
irregular  but  could  easily  have  been  made  regular.  The  Governor  of 
Bermuda  claimed  that  he  had  no  authority  to  hold  the  prisoners. 
The  antagonists  of  Lord  Durham  in  the  British  Parliament,  and  chief 
amongst  them  the  brilliant,  bitter,  and  erratic  personality  of  Lord 
Brougham,  inveighed  strongly  against  the  policy  as  illegal  and  unjus- 
tifiable ;  the  Imperial  Government  unfairly  and  unwisely  weakened 
under  an  attack  which  should  have  been  honestly  and  vigorously  met, 
and  disallowed  the  decree ;  Lord  Durham  threw  up  his  office  with 
indignation,  issued  a  proclamation  declaring  that  he  had  been  unsup- 
ported in  his  necessary  punishment  of  notorious  rebels,  and  returned 
home  without  waiting  for  a  recall  or  for  the  receipt  of  his  resignation 
in  London.  It  was  not  statesmanship  to  give  way  to  such  a  sudden 
s6ntiment  of  rage,  however  justified  by  the  supineness  of  those  who 
should  have  stood  by  him.  But  the  action  was  little  more  than  a  spot 
on  the  sun  of  his  real  success.  He  had  practically  done  his  great 
work.  His  Report  on  the  condition  of  British  America  was  well  in 
hand  and,  doubtless,  was  largely  added  to  during  the  long,  slow  voy- 
age home  and  a  reputation  thus  secured  in  the  pages  of  history  greater 
than  that  won  by  all  brilliant  vagaries  of  a  Brougham  or  the  gay  and 
almost  forgotten  bonhommie  of  a  Melbourne. 

Still,  he  had  to  encounter  the  coldness  of  official  sentiment  as 
shown  in  the  refusal  to  accord  him  the  usual  salute  on  the  arrival  of  his 
ship  and  to  chafe  under  the  ignorant  criticism  of  clever  men  in  the 
Houses  of  Parliament.  He  had  to  face  a  situation  which  his  proud  spirit 
could  not  brook,  which  the  kindly  reception  of  the  populace  could  not 
counteract,  which  the  knowledge  of  being  in  the  right  could  not  assuage ; 
and  within  a  few  months  the  delicate,  warm-hearted,  impulsive  and 


258  LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  ADAS 

brilliantly  capable  nobleman  had  passed  away  leaving  a  document 
which  is  enshrined  in  the  annals  of  liberty  and  constitutional  rule.  It 
was  communicated  to  the  British  Parliament  on  February  ii,  1839 
and  composes,  with  its  numerous  appendices  and  subsidiary  reports, 
a  most  elaborate  study  of  the  early  political  history  of  British  America 
• — a  voluminous  and  most  valuable  summary  of  conditions  and  senti- 
ments and  tendencies  in  the  Provinces,  As  a  result  of  six  months' 
labour  and  experience  it  is  marvellous  in  scope  and  character  ;  as  a  cor- 
rect and  impartial  statement  and  prophetic  picture  of  the  future, 
it  is  still  more  so. 

THE    DURHAM    REPORT 

Of  course,  all   Lord  Durham's  conclusions  and  assertions  were 
not  accurate  ;   and    mistakes   are  to  be  found  and  sins  of  omission 
and  commission   easily  proven.     Sir    Francis    Bond    Head,    Bishop 
Strachan  and   Sir   John   Beverley  Robinson,   from  the  standpoint  of 
the   Loyalist  and   Tory,   found   much   to   criticise   and   certainly   did 
their  duty  up  to  the  hilt.     The    French    Canadians   found   reason 
for   copious  denunciation   and   to   this   day  the   name  of  Durham  is 
hardly  one  to  conjure  with  in  Quebec.      It  was  quite  impossible  to 
please  both  Tory  and  Liberal  in  Canada  and  his  advocacy  of  respon- 
sible government  might  be  justly  expected  to  antagonize  the  former. 
It  was  also  impossible  to  please  the  French  at  this  juncture  and  espe- 
cially when    recommending   the    union    of    the    Canadas.     Yet,  the 
strength  of  his  statements  regarding  the  population  of  Lower  Can- 
ada was  the  one  great  error  in  the  Report.     It  did  not  invalidate  the 
value  of  his  recommendations,  or  control  greatly  his  conclusions,  but 
it  had  the  effect  of  weakening  the  influence  of  his  whole  policy  in 
the  French  Canada  of  the  future. 

He  seems  to  have  felt  intensely  the  unworthiness  of  the  attitude 
assumed  by  the  French  Assembly.  From  its  point  of  view  he  de- 
clared the  English  were  a  foreign  and  a  hostile  race  ;  settlement  and 


WILLIAM  KINGSFORD,  LL.D. 


THE   REV.  DR.  HENRY  W^ILKES 


THE   HON.  JOHN  YOUNG 


COLONEL  GEORGE  McDONELL,  C.B. 


LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  AD  AS  261 

immigration  were  to  be  checked  as  tending  to  the  possible  aggran- 
dizement of  these  aliens ;  taxes  were  not  to  be  imposed  for  purposes 
of  development,  or  for  such  objects  as  the  improvement  of  Montreal 
harbour,  because  the  expenditure  might  benefit  English  interests ; 
applications  for  banks  and  railways  and  canals  were  to  be  put  aside 
for  similar  reasons ;  the  Feudal  tenure  must  be  supported  and  per- 
sisted in  because  it  was  a  French  institution  ;  a  tax  on  immigrants 
should  be  advocated  and  largely  supported ;  while  any  measure 
retarding  English  purposes  or  checking  English  investment  would 
be  certain  of  approval.  All  this  was  true  enough,,  but  it  hardly 
justified  the  following  conclusion  :  "  Nor  do  I  exaggerate  the  inevi- 
table constancy  any  more  than  the  intensity  of  this  animosity.  Never 
again  will  the  present  generation  of  French  Canadians  yield  a  loyal 
submission  to  a  British  Government  ;  never  again  will  the  English 
population  tolerate  the  authority  of  a  House  of  Assembly  in  which  the 
French  shall  possess,  or  even  approximate  to,  a  majority." 

However,  good  came  out  of  error,  and  the  very  strength  of  Dur- 
ham's belief  in  the  disloyal  sentiment  of  the  French  race  in  Lower 
Canada  led  him  to  seek  a  solution  of  the  problem  in  the  merging  of 
the  French  in  that  Province  with  the  English  in  the  other  Provinces. 
Failing  the  immediate  fruition  of  this  far-seeing  policy  of  a   federal 
union,  he  pressed  the  proposal  to  unite  Upper  and  Lower  Canada. 
He  believed  that  this  policy  would  cause  parties  which  were  divided  on 
racial  or  sectarian  lines  to  be  re-constituted  upon  questions  of  general 
development   and  local  interest.     The  one   race  would  balance  the 
other,  one  church  influence  would  be  offset  by  another,  and  new  com- 
binations and  conditions  would  change,  for  the  better,  the  whole  sur- 
face of  society.     It  might  not  be  so  at  once  and,  during  the  existing 
generation  he  did  not  anticipate   much   difference  or  change  in  the 
sentiment  of  Lower  Canada,  but  in  the  end  the  result  was  reason- 
ably certain. 


262  LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  7  ME  CAN  ADAS 

His  analysis  of  the  constitutional  issue  was  masterly.  He  caught 
up  all  the  vague  threads  of  thought  upon  the  subject  as  they  floated 
through  the  controversies  of  years  ;  sifted  the  discussion  of  extraneous 
matters  which  had  clouded  the  real  issue  ;  cleared  the  air  of  many 
misunderstandings  upon  the  one  side  and  of  dense  prejudices  on  the 
other.  He  enabled  the  Liberals  to  eventually  evolve  in  some  clear- 
ness the  principles  they  were  so  blindly  groping  after  and  the  Tories 
to  understand  the  policy  free  from  many  of  their  natural  suspicions 
though  not  from  their  equally  natural  aversions.  He  enabled  the 
Colonial  Office  to  perceive  that  there  might  be  some  workable  and 
loyal  method  of  enlarging  the  scope  and  character  of  Colonial  insti- 
tutions without  encouraging  republicanism  and  secession. 

The  presentation  of  the  policy  was  its  own  recommendation.  It 
involved  a  re-constructed  system  in  which,  by  steady  stages  of  devel- 
opment, the  Colonies  were  to  have  complete  self-government — includ- 
ing a  Legislature  with  the  same  powers  in  Provincial  money  matters 
as  the  British  Parliament  had  in  Home  affairs  and  a  Ministry  respon- 
sible to  the  Legislature  for  the  conduct  of  public  matters  in  the  same 
way  as  the  Imperial  Government  was  at  home.  It  does  not  appear 
that  Lord  Durham  expected  all  this  to  be  achieved  in  a  day,  or  a  ses- 
sion, in  any  of  the  Provinces  ;  to  say  nothing  of  it  being  done  in  the 
stormy  season  which  must  follow  the  union  of  the  Canadas.  But 
upon  the  point  of  its  necessity  he  was  firmly  convinced  :  "  I  know 
not  how  it  is  possible  to  secure  harmony  in  any  other  way  than  by 
administering  the  Government  on  those  principles  which  have  been 
found  perfectly  efficacious  in  Great  Britain.  I  would  not  impair  a 
single  prerogative  of  the  Crown  ;  on  the  contrary  I  believe  that  the 
interests  of  the  people  of  these  Provinces  require  the  protection  of 
prerogatives  which  have  not  hitherto  been  exercised.  But  the  Crown 
must,  on  the  other  hand,  submit  to  the  necessary  consequences  of 
representative  institutions  ;  and  if  it  has  to  carry  on  the  government 


LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  A  DAS  263 

in  unison  with  a  representative  body,  it  must  consent  to  carry  it  on 
by  means  of  those  in  whom  that  representative  body  has  confi- 
dence." * 

The  ceaseless  struggle  between  Executive  and  Legislative  func- 
tions and  bodies  must  be  changed  into  harmonious  and  combined 
action.  "  While  the  present  state  of  things  is  allowed  to  last  the 
actual  inhabitants  of  these  Provinces  have  no  security  for  person  or 
property,  no  enjoyment  of  what  they  possess,  no  stimulus  to  indus- 
try." The  Report  gave,  indeed,  a  most  gloomy  picture  of  existing 
conditions  and  especially  so  in  its  comparison  of  the  progress  on  the 
American  side  of  the  line  with  the  stagnation  on  the  Canadian  border. 
To  summarize  the  Report,  as  a  whole,  it  may  be  said  that  he 
deprecated  the  continuous  and  injurious  political  agitation,  denounced 
the  character  and  motives  of  the  French  Canadian  leaders  and  many 
of  their  people,  proposed  union  of  the  Canadas  as  a  partial  cure  to 
the  evils  in  the  Lower  Province,  urged  the  creation  of  responsible 
Ministries  in  all  the  Provinces  as  a  panacea  for  constitutional  trou- 
bles, proposed  the  building  of  the  present  Inter-Colonial  Railway  from 
Halifax  to  Quebec  as  a  means  of  drawing  the  Provinces  together,  and 
advocated  the  establishment  of  municipal  institutions  as  a  means  of 
guarding  local  interests  and  advancing  political  experience  and  knowl- 
edge. 

RESULTS   OF    THE    REPORT 

Though  the  writer  of  the  document  was  put  to  one  side  by  the 
dictate  of  destiny  his  opinions  were  at  once  embodied,  to  a  consider- 
derable  extent,  in  an  Act  of  the  British  Parliament  which  Lord  John 
Russell  introduced  in  June  1839.  Sir  John  Colborne,  who  had  been 
acting  as  Governor-General  since  the  departure  of  Lord  Durham, 
was  now  replaced  by  Mr.  Charles  E.  Poulett  Thomson,  M.  P.,  and 
returned   home   to   become    eventually    Lord    Seaton   and   a    Field 

*  The  Durham  Report,  page  io6. 


264  LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  AD  AS 

Marshal  in  the  army.  Mr.  Thomson,  who  was  soon  to  be  known  as 
Lord  Sydenham  of  Sydenham  and  Toronto,  was  a  Liberal  in  politics  and 
a  shrewd,  careful  and  diplomatic  administrator.  He  rapidly  made  him- 
self familiar  with  the  complicated  situation  and  got  into  touch  with 
interests  and  personages  hitherto  far  removed  from  the  purview  of  the 
Governor-General's  attention,  although  of  great  importance  in  the  set- 
tlement of  affairs.  He  arrived  at  Montreal  in  November  and  found 
the  situation  somewhat  simplified  by  the  fact  that  the  proposals  con- 
tained in  Lord  J.  Russell's  Bill  did  not  have  to  run  the  gauntlet  of 
French  approval — excepting  that  of  a  few  Seigneurs  included  in  the 
Council  which  had  governed  the  Province  under  Durham  and  Col- 
borne  during  the  previous  two  years.  This  body  readily  accepted  the 
principle  of  union  with  Upper  Canada  which  it  declared  of  "  indis- 
pensable and  urgent  necessity." 

In  December,  he  achieved  the  exceedingly  difficult  step  of  pass- 
ing a  favourable  motion  through  the  Legislature  of  Upper  Canada 
which,  at  this  time,  was  fully  under  the  control  of  the  Tory  Loyalists 
in  both  its  branches.  They  were  still  smarting  from  the  evils  of  the 
rebellion  period,  still  triumphant  over  the  vindication  of  their  fears 
and  dislike  of  Mackenzie  and  his  associates,  still  more  certain  of  the 
disloyalty  of  the  French  Canadians  than  they  had  been  before,  confi- 
dent as  ever  in  the  necessity  for  a  strong  British  administration  of  the 
Provinces  without  too  much  regard  to  Radical,  or  Liberal  or  Republi- 
can susceptibilities.  Yet  they  were  now  asked  by  the  Governor- 
General,  on  behalf  of  the  Crown  and  the  Home  Government,  to 
forego  the  advantages  of  their  present  triumph  ;  to  accept  a  union 
which  meant  an  influx  of  French  votes  into  the  joint  Assembly  suffi- 
cient to  paralyze  their  power  as  a  party  ;  to  support  by  this  action  a 
system  of  responsible  government  which,  though  not  included  in  the 
legislation,  was  bound  to  follow  it,  and  which  they  were  conscienti- 
ously bound  to  oppose;  to  make  a  way  ready,  in  short,  for  the  victory 


LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  AD  AS  265 

of  men  who  were  nothing  less  than  rebels  in  the  eyes  of  such  politi- 
cal leaders  of  the  time  as  Draper  and  McNab  and  Strachan  and 
Sherwood. 

That  they  finally  consented  to  the  union  and  supported  an  Ad- 
dress to  the  Crown  in  its  favour  is  a  tribute,  in  the  first  place,  to  the 
genuine  unselfishness  and  sincerity  of  much  of  the  loyalty  of  that 
period  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  the  ability  and  tact  of  the  Gov- 
ernor-General. The  former  element  in  the  settlement  has  not  been 
remembered  and  appreciated  as  it  deserves,  the  latter  gives  Lord 
Sydenham  a  high  place  in  Canadian  history.  Finally,  Lord  J.  Rus- 
sell, re-introduced  his  measure  in  the  British  Session  of  1840,  and  it 
came  into  operation  in  the  now  United  Province  of  Canada,  on  Febru- 
ary 10,  1 84 1.  The  Act  provided  for  a  Legislative  Council  of  not  less 
than  20  members,  and  for  a  Legislative  Assembly  in  which  the  old 
Provinces  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  would  each  be  represented  by 
42  members — this  number  being  unchangeable  except  by  a  two-thirds 
majority  in  both  Houses.  The  qualification  for  the  Assembly  was  a 
freehold  valued  at  £^(x>  over  and  above  all  liabilities. 

The  English  language  only  was  to  be  used  and  the  limit  of  time 
for  the  duration  of  the  popular  body  was  four  years.  Of  course,  it 
could  be  dissolved  by  the  Governor-General  at  any  time.  Provision 
was  made  for  a  consolidated  revenue  fund  on  which  the  first  charges 
were  to  be  the  expense  of  collection,  management  and  receipt  of 
revenues,  the  interest  of  the  public  debt,  the  civil  list  and  payment  of 
the  clergy.*  The  last-mentioned  item  shows  how  close  were  the 
relations  of  Church  and  State,  even  yet,  and  the  arrangement  regard- 
ing the  Civil  List  finally  disposed  of  that  much-vexed  question. 
After  these  payments  were  made  out  of  the  fund  the  balance  was  at 
the  disposal   of   the   Legislature.       All   votes,  resolutions  and  bills 

*  Sir  J.  G.  Bourinot,  Manual  of  the  Conalitutional  History  of  Canada,  1888. 
15 


266  LORD  DURHAM  AND  THE  UNION  OF  THE  CAN  ADAS 

connected  with  the    expenditure  of   public    moneys  had  to  be  first 
recommended  by  the  Governor-General. 

As  to  the  administration  of  this  new  system,  Lord  Sydenham's 
position  was  a  great  advance  upon  that  of  his  predecessors.  In  De- 
cember, 1839,  he  had  anticipated  its  creation  with  the  statement  that 
he  had  "  received  Her  Majesty's  commands  "  to  direct  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  Province  in  accordance  "with  the  well-understood  inter- 
ests and  wishes  of  the  people."  Subsequent  despatches  from  Lord 
John  Russell,  which  were  duly  communicated  to  the  Legislature,  em- 
bodied instructions  to  the  Governor-General  to  "  maintain  the  utmost 
possible  harmony,"  and  to  call  to  his  counsels  those  only  who  had 
the  "general  confidence  and  esteem  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Province." 
Certain  heads  of  departments  were  also  to  retire  from  the  public 
service  as  often  "  as  sufficient  motives  of  public  policy  "  might  sug- 
gest the  expediency  of  such  a  course.  This  was  progress  in  the 
direction  of  popular  government  though  it  was  still  a  very  vague  and 
uncertain  stage  in  the  movement.  It  was  certain  to  come  in  the  end, 
but  Lord  Sydenham's  supposed  objection  to  a  radical  course  at  this 
juncture  did  not  afford  any  prospect  of  its  being  unduly  hastened 
and,  certainly,  his  advisers  at  Quebec  and  Toronto  were  not  anxious 
to  promote  any  sudden  change.  Such  was  the  general  situation  when 
Lord  Durham's  great  proposal  of  union  was  put  into  form  and  shape 
and  the  first  Parliament  of  the  new  Province  was  about  to  meet. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company  and  the  Far  West 

THE  romance  of  history  can  give  no  more  striking  theme  or 
richer  subject  for  the  pen  of  the  word-painter  than  is  afforded 
by  the  annals  of  the  oldest  institution  of  British  America — 
the  Company  of  Adventurers  of  England  trading  into  Hudson's  Bay. 
Founded  in  1672,  as  the  result  of  an  exploratory  journey  through 
the  unknown  wilds  north  of  Lake  Superior  by  Radissonand  DeGroseil- 
lier — two  Frenchmen  of  energetic  courage — and  their  discovery  of  a 
water  route  through  Lake  Winnipeg  to  the  vast  inland  sea,  of  ice- 
bound appearance  but  great  promise;  chartered  by  Charles  H. 
and  governed  in  its  early  years  by  such  men  as  the  gallant 
Prince  Rupert,  the  Duke  of  York  who  lives  in  history  as  King  James 
IL,  and  that  astute  politician  and  great  soldier,  the  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough; having  rights  and  privileges  most  far-reaching  and  com- 
plete, extending  over  a  vast  and  ill-defined  territory,  providing  exclu- 
sive control  over  trade,  lands,  mines  and  minerals,  the  making  of 
laws  not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England,  and  the  raising  of  armed 
forces  for  self-protection ;  possessed  of  all  these  and  other  opportuni- 
ties and  powers  it  would  have  been  curious  had  some  important 
result  not  followed  its  establishment. 

In  one  respect  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  imitated  its  more 
famous  prototype  in  the  East  Indies.  It  saved  a  vast  region  to  the 
Crown  and  people  of  England  and  the  future  Canadian  common- 
wealth, which  would  otherwise  have  drifted  into  the  hands  of  France 
during  the  century  of  conflict  with  that  would-be  American  Power 
and,  perhaps,  have  remained  there  as  not  being  thought  worth  any 

267 


268  THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST 

very  strong  action.  Or,  if  rescued  from  a  possibility  which  the  dis- 
coveries and  trade  and  pioneer  activities  of  New  France  rendered 
natural,  it  would  probably  have  fallen  to  the  United  States  during 
those  days  of  British  indifference  to  territory,  or  empire,  or  external 
power,  which  we  know  of  as  the  period  of  Manchester  school  suprem- 
acy— a  time  when,  if  the  British  part  of  the  world  outside  the  United 
Kingdom  had  been  thrown  into  the  scale  against  a  few  million 
pounds  of  commerce,  a  few  speeches  upon  the  beneficence  and  God- 
sent  greatness  of  free-trade,  or  the  dread  possibilities  of  war,  the 
Empire  would  too  often  have  risen  so  high  in  the  air  as  to  disappear 
from  the  real  consideration  of  the  subject. 

THE    GREAT    WILDERNESS    OF    THE    FAR    WEST 

It  was  a  great  region  which  the  Company  came  to  rule  over.  It 
stretched  from  Lake  Superior  to  Hudson's  Bay  and  far  away  to  the 
frozen  north  and  west ;  over  countries  hardly  trod  by  the  most 
adventurous  of  trappers  or  familiar  even  to  the  most  experienced  of 
Indian  wanderers.  It  extended  over  the  prairies  and  in  time  reached 
the  Selkirks  and  the  Rockies;  it  came  to  the  far  shores  of  the  Pacific 
and  into  the  Island  of  Vancouver,  down  the  coast  and  over  the 
Oregon  and  Washington  of  the  future ;  it  expanded  north  into  the 
wilds  of  Russian  America  and  the  Klondike  and  Alaska  of  a  later 
time.  The  growth  and  extension  of  the  Company  was,  however, 
a  slow  and  natural  one.  In  the  earlier  days  of  its  history  the  wars 
of  the  French  and  English  reached  the  gloomy  shores  of  the  great 
Bay,  as  they  did  to  the  furthest  southern  point  of  the  continent. 
Between  1670  and  1697,  the  Company  lost  ^215,000  through  French 
incursions — a  very  large  sum  in  those  days.  And  so  matters  con- 
tinued for  nearly  a  century.  But,  despite  the  issues  of  loss  or  gain, 
of  war  or  peace,  the  Company  kept  on  its  way  and  built  forts,  traded 
with  the  Indians,  fought  the  French  if  need  be,  increased  its  stock, 
and  managed  to  make  profits  so  large  in  some  years  as  to  far  more 


THE  HON.  LUC  LUTELLIER  DE  ST.  JUST 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Quebec,  1876-79 


THE  HON.  SIR  ALBERT  J.  SMITH 
K.C.M.G. 


THE  HON.  SIR  ADAMS  G.  ARCHIBALD  jhe  HON.  THOMAS   D'ARCY  McGEE,  M.P. 

K.C.M.G. 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  Manitoba  and  of  Nova  Scotm 


THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST  271 

than  counterbalance  incidental  losses.  Everywhere  throughout  the  wil- 
derness its  traders  journeyed  from  fort  to  fort,  meeting  the  Indians 
in  picturesque  pow-wow,  and  exchanging  articles  of  trivial  value  but 
pretty  appearance  for  almost  priceless  furs,  or  for  the  more  common 
ones  which  were  then  so  exceedingly  plentiful  without  being  deficient  in 
value.  Everywhere  they  found  the  element  of  adventure,  the  weird 
entertainment  of  savage  life,  the  pleasures  of  a  wild  liberty,  the  joy  of 
the  chase  over  boundless  regions  teeming  with  game  and  animal  life. 

While  the  mastery  of  the  continent  remained  at  issue  between 
England  and  France  the  Company  was  not  subject  to  much  external 
interference  or  control,  outside  of  the  raids  upon  its  territory  already 
mentioned.  In  1720,  it  was,  therefore,  able  to  treble  its  capital  stock 
for  a  second  time  and  to  continue  paying  its  share-holders  comfortable 
dividends.  But,  after  the  supremacy  of  England  became  an  undis- 
puted fact,  attention  was  naturally  directed  to  the  monopoly  of  the 
Company,  to  the  natural  riches  of  the  region  it  controlled,  and  to  the 
possibility  of  sharing  in  its  profitable  trade.  Individual  traders  first 
drifted  into  the  country,  and  then  came  the  organization  of  the  North- 
West  Company  at  Montreal,  in  1774,  with  such  untiring  and  energetic 
men  as  Stuart,  McGillivray  and  McTavish  as  its  pioneers.  In  1798, 
the  "  X.  Y."  Company  was  formed  but  amalgamated  seven  years  later 
with  its  Montreal  rival.  Meanwhile,  the  Americans  had  come  in  to 
increase  the  competition  by  the  formation  of  the  Mackinaw  Company, 
and  in  1809  the  famous  South- West  Company  was  organized  by  John 
Jacob  Astor.  A  little  later  he  formed  the  Pacific  Fur  Company,  and 
up  to  18 1 3  maintained  a  tremendous  struggle  with  his  various  rivals. 
In  that  year,  however,  he  gave  in  to  the  Nor'-Westers  and  sold  the 
whole  business  to  them  for  some  ^80,000. 

During  the  next  few  years  the  competition  and  jealousy  of  the 
two  great  remaining  Companies  were  intense.  The  Hudson's  Bay  con- 
cern was,  for  the  time  being,  outstripped  by  its  opponent  in  energy, 


272  THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST 

knowledge  of  the  country  and  establishment  of  trading  posts.  Owing 
to  the  system  of  partnership  by  which  officers  had  the  opportunity 
of  becoming  personally  interested  in  its  business,  the  North-West 
Company  obtained  better  men  than  did  the  other,  and,  moreover, 
benefited  largely  by  the  employment  of  French-Canadian  voyageurs, 
trappers  and  traders — men  accustomed  to  the  wild  life  of  the  West, 
able  and  willing  to  obey  their  superiors,  despite  occasional  lapses  into 
recklessness,  and  with  pronounced  knowledge  of  the  peculiarities  and 
habits  of  the  Indians  upon  whose  assistance  much  depended.  The 
older  Company,  on  the  other  hand,  preferred  to  employ  hardy  and 
vigorous  North-of-Scotland  men,  who,  though  reliable  and  honest, 
were  too  unbending  in  their  intercourse  with  the  natives,  and  there- 
fore unpopular.  This  trade  contest  did  much  incidental  good  in  open- 
ing up  the  country.  The  fur-traders  of  the  two  Companies  pushed 
their  explorations  and  trafific  in  every  direction — away  to  the  Peace 
River  and  Athabaska  and  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  over  the  Rockies  into 
New  Caledonia,  or  British  Columbia — and  amongst  them  all  none  was 
more  active  or  successful  than  John  Stuart,  of  the  Nor'- Westers. 

ALEXANDER    MACKENZIE    AND    OTHER    EXPLORERS 

But  the  greatest  name  amongst  the  many  who  endured  unknown 
hardships  and  met  every  form  of  peril,  in  order  to  provide  the  modern 
map  of  a  vast  civilized  region,  is  that  of  Alexander  Mackenzie.  Be- 
tween 1789  and  1793,  this  intrepid  traveller  discovered  the  great 
river  which  bears  his  name  and  followed  it  to  the  Arctic  seas.  He 
explored  the  Peace  River  to  its  source  and  was  the  first  white  man 
to  penetrate  the  Rockies  and  the  Selkirks  and  pass  through  those 
mighty  barriers  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  On  the  coast  of  the  Pacific,  at 
Dean  Inlet,  there  are  still  to  be  seen  inscribed  on  a  rock  the  words  : 
"Alexander  Mackenzie,  from  Canada,  by  land,  22nd  July,  1793."  He 
lived  to  be  knighted  by  his  Sovereign  and  to  appreciate  in  some 
measure  the  greatness  of  his  own  work.     Mackenzie  was,  during  this 


THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST  273 

period,  a  member  of  the  North-West  Company,  but  others  who 
contributed  to  the  general  process  of  exploration  were  so  mixed  up 
between  the  two  great  concerns  that  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  differ- 
entiate here.  David  Thompson  explored  the  Nelson,  Churchill  and 
Saskatchewan  Rivers,  and  was  the  first  to  follow  the  Columbia  through 
the  rugged  passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  coast. 

Alexander  Henry,  Gabriel  Fanchon,  Ross  Cox,  Alexander 
Ross,  D.  W.  Harman  and  John  McLeod  did  splendid  service. 
Robert  Campbell  discovered  the  Pelly  River  and  traced  it  through 
varied  wanderings  to  the  far  Yukon.  He  afterwards  made  a  famous 
journey  through  the  wilds  of  the  West  and  over  9,700  miles  of  terri- 
tory in  a  dog-sled,  or  on  snow-shoes.  Simon  Fraser,  in  1806,  dis- 
covered and  explored  the  great  mountain  river  of  British  Columbia 
which  bears  his  name.  In  1828,  Sir  George  Simpson,  the  Governor 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  traversed  in  a  canoe  the  same 
turbulent  river  from  near  its  source  to  the  ocean  into  which  it  enters 
— carrying  his  frail  craft  when  the  whirlpools  and  boiling  waters  were 
too  strong  for  even  his  skill.  He  made  other  long  and  important 
journeys  throughout  the  great  regions  which  he  governed. 

Meanwhile,  explorations  and  discoveries  had  been  also  made  by 
adventurous  spirits  not  connected  with  these  Companies.  In  1731, 
Pierre  Gauthier  de  la  Verendrye  had  led  a  French  expedition  up  into 
the  then  unknown  prairies  of  the  West  and  discovered  Lakes  Mani- 
toba and  Winnipegosis.  Between  1769  and  1772,  Samuel  Hearne 
had  journeyed  over  a  thousand  miles  in  canoes  and  on  foot  to  the  west 
of  Hudson's  Bay,  discovered  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  and  traced  the 
Coppermine  River  to  its  mouth  in  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Shortly  after 
this  time  Captain  Cook  had  touched  at  Nootka  Sound,  on  the  coast 
of  Vancouver  Island,  and  then  sailed  north  to  Behring's  Strait.  At 
the  very  time  that  Mackenzie  was  writing  his  inscription  on  the  shores 
of  the  Pacific,  Captain  Vancouver  was  exploring  the  same  region  from 


274  THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST 

the  sea  and  sailing  around  the  island  which  bears  his  name.  In  later 
years  Sir  John  Franklin,  Sir  George  Back,  Dr.  Rae,  Sir  John  Rich- 
ardson, P.  W.  Deane  and  Thomas  Simpson,  led  in  the  overland  search 
for  the  North-West  Passage ;  and  their  discoveries,  surveys  and 
records  afford  not  only  a  striking  picture  of  peril  and  privation,  but 
a  most  valuable  fund  of  information  regarding  the  then  unknown 
wilds  of  the  farthest  north. 

As  this  work  of  increasing  knowledge  and  promoting  trade  pro- 
ceeded through  varied  phases  of  personal  adventure  and  commercial 
rivalry  attempts  were  naturally  made  to  establish  settlements.  The 
great  effort  was  that  of  Lord  Selkirk  in  the  ten  years  following  i8i  i. 

LORD    SELKIRK    AND    HIS    WORK 

He  was  an  extraordinary  man  in  many  ways.  Proud  and  inde- 
pendent in  sentiment,  stern  and  uncompromising  in  determination, 
vigorous  and  enthusiastic  in  policy,  he  was  well  fitted  to  be  a  pioneer 
of  colonization.  Fairly  successful  in  early  efforts  in  Prince  Edward 
Island,  failing  in  the  attempt  to  create  interest  in  settling  a  great 
estate  which  he  had  bought  in  Upper  Canada,  he  finally  turned  his 
attention  to  the  North-West  and  resolved  to  write  his  name  large  in 
the  making  of  that  country.  After  studying  the  position  of  affairs 
there  and  in  Montreal  he  made  up  his  mind  that  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  were  the  eventual  masters  of  the  situation  and  decided  to 
throw  in  his  lot  with  them.  He  purchased,  in  1811,  a  controlling 
interest  in  its  stock — some  ;^40,ooo  out  of  ^100,000 — and  obtained 
from  the  Directors,  amongst  whom  were  many  of  his  friends  or  rela- 
tives, a  grant  of  116,000  square  miles  of  territory  on  the  condition 
that  he  should  establish  a  colony  and  furnish  the  Company  with  labour- 
ers as  required.  This  was  practically  the  founding  of  the  present 
Province  of  Manitoba. 

Lord  Selkirk  at  once  brought  out  a  ship-load  of  the  Duchess  of 
Sutherland'?  tenants  and  after  varied  difficulties  and  dangers  reached 


THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST  275 

the  junction  of  the  Red  and  Assiniboine  Rivers  where,  near  the  site 
of  the  present  City  of  Winnipeg,  the  Red  River  Settlement  was 
established.  During  the  years  that  followed  these,  colonists,  and 
others  who  joined  them  from  time  to  time,  suffered  in  every  way 
in  which  it  is  possible  for  pioneers  to  have  trouble.  The  Nor'-West- 
ers  considered  the  soil  to  be  theirs  and  every  means  of  annoyance  in 
the  power  of  a  strong  corporation  to  inflict,  were  freely  used,  as  occa- 
sion arose,  till  they  culminated  in  a  skirmish  in  18 16  when  Governor 
Semple,  who  was  acting  for  Lord  Selkirk,  and  a  number  of  his  colo- 
nists, were  killed  by  an  armed  band  of  Nor'-Westers. 

It  was  a  typical  incident,  though  an  unusually  violent  one,  of  the 
conflict  which  was  waged  all  over  the  North-West  duringthe  first  twenty 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  between  the  two  great  Companies.  In 
this  case,  however,  it  aroused  the  lion  that  was  in  the  Earl  of  Selkirk 
and,  though  just  recovering  from  illness,  he  obtained  a  force  of  eighty 
soldiers  and  a  couple  of  small  cannon.  With  this  troop  he  rushed 
around  the  Great  Lakes  from  Montreal  and  through  the  wilderness, 
captured  the  chief  agent  and  several  partners  of  the  North-West  Com- 
pany, and  sent  them  to  York  for  trial  on  various  charges  of  murder, 
arson  and  robbery.  Of  course,  they  were  not  convicted  at  such  a  dis- 
tance from  the  scene  and  under  the  irregular  conditions  of  their 
arrest;  but  the  lesson  was  a  good  one  and  for  the  next  few  years, 
until  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  absorbed  its  rival  in  1821,  there 
was  more  of  peace  and  quietness  in  the  vast  region  of  their  rivalry. 

Lord  Selkirk  had  to  suffer  from  subsequent  verdicts  for  false 
imprisonment,  but  in  the  meantime  he  had  discounted  further  inter- 
ference with  his  cherished  settlement.  He  could  not,  however,  con- 
trol the  obstacles  offered  by  nature  and,  though  he  over  and  over 
again  brought  his  settlers  supplies  of  food,  seed-grain  and  implements 
at  his  own  expense,  they  yet  had  to  suffer  untold  hardships  from 
exceptional  cold,  from  floods  and  famine,  and  from  a  unique  plague  of 


276  THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  EAR  WEST 

grasshoppers  which  extended  over  two  years  and  destroyed  every 
vestige  of  crop  and  growing  food  product.  Eventually,  the  colonists 
and  their  determined  patron  succeeded  and,  though  the  progress  was 
slow,  it  was  more  and  more  sure  as  the  years  went  on.  When  Lord 
Selkirk  died  in  1820  he  could  see  that  this  success  was  at  least  prob- 
able though  it  is  doubtful  indeed  if  the  Father  of  Manitoba  could 
have  anticipated  the  vast  golden  wheatfields  of  the  future,  the  whistle 
of  the  locomotive  over  the  wilderness  of  his  time,  or  the  roar  of  traf- 
fic in  a  large  city  where  he  had  sheltered  in  their  humble  huts  the 
first  shivering  settlers  on  the  banks  of  the  Red  River. 

As  the  years  passed  the  settlement  grew  in  size  and  importance 
and  Fort  Garry  became  the  head-quarters  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany which,  in  1836,  purchased  for  ^84,000  the  land  granted  to  Lord 
Selkirk  in  181 1.  Gradually  the  population  was  added  to  by  French 
trappers  and  hunters  and  by  Half-breeds  who  came  from  the  unions  of 
the  French  with  Indian  women  and,  in  time,  constituted  a  population 
of  thousands.  Sir  George  Simpson  assumed  control  of  much  of  the 
Company's  affairs  after  its  absorption  of  the  Nor'-Westers  and,  from 
182 1  for  thirty-five  years,  he  was  the  leading  spirit  of  the  North  West. 
He  organized  the  interests  of  the  Company,  explored  and  extended  its 
vast  territories,  reconciled  conflicting  conditions  and  established  a  vio-or- 
ous  personal  control  over  everything.  During  this  period  travellers  and 
explorers  were  sure  of  assistance  and  support  at  every  fort  or  factory 
of  the  Company,  while  its  business  steadily  grew  in  volume  and  profits. 
A  network  of  trading  posts  was  constituted  right  across  the  continent 
and,  when  the  Governor  retired  in  1856,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company, 
with  152  regular  establishments  and  over  3,000  permanent  servants, 
dominated  the  religious,  political  and  social  life  of  the  North-West. 

Steady  progress  had  also  been  made  in  monopolizing  the  fur  trade 
of  the  Pacific  coast.  Forts  were  established,  routes  laid  out  and  main- 
tained, Indians  conciliated  and  employed.      In  1847  the  Governor  of 


THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST  277 

the  Company  in  London  informed  Lord  Grey,  Colonial  Secretary, 
that  it  was  willing  to  "  undertake  the  government  and  colonization  of 
all  the  territories  belonging  to  the  Crown  in  North  America,  and 
receive  a  grant  accordingly."  While  creditable  to  its  ambition  and 
self-confidence  such  an  extensive  proposal  could  hardly  commend  itself 
to  the  authorities  ;  but  in  the  following  year  a  more  moderate  one 
which  involved  the  management  of  New  Caledonia  and  the  grant  of 
Vancouver  Island  for  ten  years  under  a  pledge  of  colonization,  was 
accepted  after  considerable  debate  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  leading  spirit  of  the  Company  in  what  is  now  the  Province 
of  British  Columbia  and  the  States  of  Washington  and  Oregon,  was, 
during  these  years,  the  vigorous  and  intrepid  Sir  James  Douglas. 
Like  Simpson,  in  the  central  regions  of  the  West,  he  rose  out  of  the 
amalgamation  of  1821,  became  Chief  Factor  of  the  Pacific  region  in 
1842,  established  a  trading  post  where  the  City  of  Victoria  now  stands, 
on  Vancouver  Island,  and,  in  1851,  became  Governor  of  the  Island 
under  the  Company.  In  1859  the  Imperial  authorities  took  over  this 
region  owing  to  the  Company  not  having  kept  its  agreement  to 
colonize  but  Douglas  was  maintained  in  his  position  as  Governor  of 
the  island  as  well  as  of  the  mainland  which  was  now  to  be  known  as 
the  Province,  or  Colony,  of  British  Columbia. 

INTERNATIONAL    DIFFICULTIES   OF    THE    COMPANY 

Meanwhile,  the  Company  had  been  subject  to  various  international 
difificulties,  or  complications,  as  a  result  of  the  advance  of  its  interests 
and  influence  into  regions  north  and  south  of  British  Columbia — or 
New  Caledonia,  as  it  then  was.  In  1833,  it  had  taken  advantage  of 
the  clause  in  the  Anglo-Russian  Treaty  of  1825  which  provided  for 
the  free  navigation  of  streams  running  through  Alaska  from  their 
source  in  British  territory,  and  had  pushed  forward  a  trading  post  to 
the  Stikine  River,  besides  fitting  out  a  brig  for  the  protection  of  its 
property.     Governor  Wrangel,  of  Alaska,  promptly  objected  to  these 


278  THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WESl 

proceedings  on  behalf  of  the  Russian  Fur  Company  ;  appealed  to 
the  authorities  at  St.  Petersburg  and  obtained  a  promise  that  the  free 
navigation  clause  should  be  terminated  in  the  following  year;  and  then, 
without  waiting  for  a  legal  excuse,  forced  the  British  Company's  vessel 
to  retire  from  Russian  territory  under  penalty  of  immediate  destruction. 
The  British  Government  was  at  once  appealed  to,  ^20,000  damages 
claimed,  and  a  diplomatic  difficulty  precipitated.  Eventually,  after  a 
conference  had  been  held  in  London,  the  question  was  settled  between 
the  two  fur  companies  themselves,  the  British  one  obtaining  the  lease 
of  Alaskan  privileges  and  rights  for  a  rental  of  2,000  land  otter  skins 
per  annum  and  a  large  supply  of  provisions  at  moderate  rates  to  the 
Russian  colony.  The  arrangement  proved  satisfactory  and  was 
renewed  at  intervals  until  Alaska  became  a  United  States  possession. 
The  boundaries  of  Hudson's  Bay  territory,  or  the  Company's  indem- 
nification for  losses  sustained  in  war,  had  also  found  a  prominent  place 
in  the  Treaties  of  Ryswick  and  Utrecht  with  France,  and  in  the  Con- 
vention of  London  with  the  United  States,  in  18 18. 

The  most  important  of  these  international  questions  was  that  con- 
nected with  the  Company's  claim  to  the  region  of  land  now  occupied 
by  the  States  of  Oregon  and  Washington.  Had  it  been  sustained  all 
that  great  country  would  have  become  British  territory,  the  San  Juan 
difficulty  would  have  been  averted,  the  rise  of  Provincial  coast  cities 
such  as  Vancouver  would  not  have  been  checked  by  the  competition 
of  Seattle  and  other  places,  and  the  mining  interests  and  resources  of 
British  Columbia  would  have  had  a  fuller  freedom  of  development. 

But,  by  the  Treaty  of  Oregon,  these  important  claims  were 
abandoned  on  the  part  of  England,  the  country  claimed  was  given 
up  to  the  United  States,  and  a  splendid  heritage  of  the  future  sur- 
rendered for  present  peace  and  quietness.  The  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany, however,  claimed  indemnity  for  its  rights  of  occupation  and 
trade  and,  finally,  in  1863,  a  commission  composed  of  Alexander  J. 


^^^^^^H     '*'**^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 

H^^^HBK,    Ci!^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

■M 

THE  HON.  LEMUEL  ALLEN  'WILMOT 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  Brunswick,  1868-73 


THE   HON.  JOSEPH  HOWE 

Lieutenant-Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  1873 


GEN.  SIR  WILLIAM   FENWICK  W^ILLIAMS  MAJOR-GENERAL  SIR  HOWARD  DOUGLAS 

BART.  (OF  KARS)  G.C.B. 

Lieutenant-Governor  of  Nova  Scotia,  1865-67  Lieutenant-Governor  of  New  Brunswick,  1824-29 


THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST  281 

Johnson,  on  behalf  of  the  United  States,  and  Sir  John  Rose,  on 
behalf  of  Great  Britain,  met  at  Washinofton  and  awarded  the  com- 
pany  $600,000.  This  was  paid,  after  repeated  representations,  in  two 
instalments — July,  1870,  and  February,  1871. 

By  this  time,  however,  the  knell  of  the  Company's  ruling  power 
had  been  struck  and  it  had  ceased  to  be  a  governing  and  creative 
factor  in  the  making-  of  the  Empire  The  period  of  its  greatest 
influence  had  been  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  when  it 
wielded  more  or  less  authority  over  a  very  wide,  though  undefined, 
region  now  belonging  to  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
It  then  boasted  a  capital  and  assets  of  over  $7,000,000,  a  com- 
plete monoply  of  trade,  and  an  influence  over  150,000  Indians 
which  was  absolute  and,  upon  the  whole,  wielded  with  wisdom  and 
kindliness — especially  in  the  restraints  imposed  upon  the  sale  of  liquor. 
But  at  this  time,  the  Province  of  Canada  had  begun  to  see  openings 
for  trade  and  development  to  the  north  and  west  and  to  feel  some 
jealousy  of  the  power  held  by  the  Company.  The  arrangement  regard- 
ing Vancouver  Island  was  closely  watched  both  at  Toronto  and  Lon- 
don, as  was  the  growth  of  the  Red  River  Settlement ;  while  the  coming 
lapse  of  the  twenty-one  years'  grant  of  exclusive  trade  given  to  the 
Company  in  1838  was  borne  carefully  in  mind.  As  a  result  of  these 
conditions  a  Select  Committee  was  appointed  by  the  Imperial  House 
of  Commons,  in  1857,  '*  to  consider  the  state  of  those  British  posses- 
sions in  North  America  which  are  under  the  license  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company,  or  over  which  it  possesses  a  License  of  Trade," 

Mr.  Gladstone,  Lord  J.  Russell,  Lord  Stanley,  Mr.  Roebuck,  Mr. 
Edward  Ellice,  Mr.  Robert  Lowe  and  other  well-known  public  men 
were  appointed  to  this  Committee  and,  after  careful  and  voluminous 
inquiry,  it  was  declared  in  the  final  Report  that  the  desire  of  Canada 
to  annex  a  portion  of  this  vast  region  for  purposes  of  settlement  and 
development   was    just   and   reasonable ;    that  the    Red  River  and 


282  THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST 

Saskatchewan  districts  should  be  ceded  to  that  Province  upon  equit- 
able conditions  ;  that  the  Company's  rule  on  Vancouver  Island  should 
cease  ;  that  in  view  of  the  danger  to  the  Indians  from  any  system  of 
open  competition  in  the  fur  trade  and  because  of  the  probable  indis- 
criminate destruction  of  valuable  fur-bearing  animals  under  such  con- 
ditions, the  purely  trade  monopoly  of  the  Company  should  be  preserved 
for  the  present.  In  1862  the  Hon.  (afterwards  Sir)  W.  P.  Howland, 
and  the  Hon.  L.  V,  Sicotte,  members  of  the  Canadian  Government, 
proceeded  to  London  for  the  purpose  of  pressing  the  annexation 
project  upon  the  Imperial  authorities.  During  the  early  part  of  the 
succeeding  year,  Sir  Edward  W.  Watkin,  an  energetic  capitalist  who 
had  been  previously  interested  in  the  Grand  Trunk  and  Intercolonial 
Railway  enterprises  and  who  had  visions  of  a  British  transconti- 
nental line,  organized  a  Company  which  took  over  the  assets  of  the 
old  Hudson's  Bay  corporation,  reconstructed  it  with  a  capital  of 
;^ 2,000,000  sterling,  and  proceeded  to  negotiate,  cordially  and  com- 
prehensively, with  the  Canadian  and  British  authorities. 

Sir  Edmund  W.  Head,  lately  Governor-General  of  British,  Amer- 
ica, was  Governor  of  the  Company  and  favoured  a  complete  sale  of 
rights  and  ownership.  .  Various  negotiations  followed  between  the 
British  and  Canadian  and  Company  authorities,  including  a  fruitless 
mission  in  1865  by  the  Hon.  George  Brown  and,  finally,  on  December 
14,  1867,  after  the  confederation  of  the  older  Provinces  into  a  Do- 
minion had  taken  place,  the  Hon.  William  McDougall  introduced  in 
the  new  House  of  Commons  a  series  of  resolutions  upon  the  subject. 
They  declared  that  the  Dominion  of  Canada  should  be  extended  to 
the  shores  of  the  Pacific ;  that  the  colonization  of  the  North-West, 
the  development  of  its  mineral  resources,  and  the  extension  of  trade 
within  its  bounds,  were  alike  dependent  upon  a  stable  government  ; 
and  that  the  welfare  of  its  sparse  population  would  be  promoted  by 
the  extension  of  Canadian  g-overnment  and  institutions  over  the  entire 


THE  HUDSON'S  BAY  COMPANY  AND  THE  FAR  WEST  283 

region.     In  the  following  year  Mr.  McDougall  and  Sir  George  Cartier 
went  to  England  to  try  and  arrange  terms  and,  in  1869,  the  arrange- 
ments were  finally  consummated  between  the  Governments  concerned. 
Canada  had  claimed  the  whole  region  as  of  right ;  it  now  accepted 
the  territory  upon  condition  of  paying  ^300,000  sterling  to  the  Com- 
pany.    It  granted  at  the  same  time,  a  twentieth  of  all  lands  surveyed 
for  settlement  in  what  was  called  Rupert's  Land,  and  gave  certain 
guarantees   against   undue   taxation.     The    Company,    on    its   side, 
retained  possession  of  its  historic  trading-posts  and   maintained  its 
influence  with  the  natives  and  its  special  facilities  for  the  fur-trade. 
Though   the  trading  monopoly  was  lost,  and  the   progress  of  settle- 
ment and  railways  in  time  changed  the  nature  of  much  of  its  business, 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  continued  to  be,  and  is  to-day,  a  great 
power  in  the  commerce  and  up-building  of  the  North-West. 

It  was  truly  an  Imperial  heritage  which  the  new  Dominion  thus 
acquired.     Its  lakes  were  like  great  seas,  its  rivers  ran  in  some  cases 
2,000  miles    from  the    source    to   the  sea,   its  fertile  and   unknown 
wheatfields  were  to  prove  practically  illimitable,  its  atmosphere  was 
found  to  be  bracinor  and  full  of  a  tonic  which  can  be  found   nowhere 
else.   Its  seasons  were  beautiful  and  pleasant  in  their  warmth,  healthy 
and  strength-giving  in  their  cold.     Upon  its  vast  plains  the  flowers 
of  spring-time  bloomed  with  peculiar  beauty  ;  over  head  the  sum- 
mer sun  blazed  in  a  strength  which   forced  the  crops  to  a  rich  and 
rare  fruition.     The  rivers  and  lakes  were  found  to  teem  with  fish, 
the  plains,  near  the  Rockies,  to  be  pre-eminently  protected  from  storm 
and  suited  to  the  raising  of  cattle,  the  surface  of  the  soil  to  cover  vast 
coal  preserves,  petroleum   fields  and,  in  the  far  north,  untold  wealth 
in  gold  and  iron  and  copper.     But  most  of  these  facts  were  unknown 
or  unappreciated  in  1869  and  a  period  of  storm  and  stress  and  slow 
development  had  to  be  faced  before  they  reached  the  consciousness 
of  the  Canadian  people  and  the  knowledge  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

Struggles    for  Responsible  Government 

NEITHER  the  troubles  of  1837,  nor  Lord  Durham's  famous 
Report,  nor  the  Union  of  the  Canadas  in  1841,  nor  the 
promising  administration  of  Lord  Sydenham,  had  brought 
into  play  or  practice  the  real  principles  of  responsible  government — 
principles  which  involve  a  Prime  Minister  selected  by  the  Queen's 
Representative ;  a  Cabinet  chosen  by  the  Premier  and,  together  with 
him,  responsible  to  the  House  of  Commons  ;  a  series  of  organized 
departments  of  administration,  each  in  charge  of  a  responsible 
Minister.  Even  the  Liberal  leaders  and  most  advanced  Reformers 
had  failed  as  yet  to  plan  out  such  a  complete  programme  and,  "without 
every  one  of  the  conditions  named  and  including  a  defined  conception 
of  the  Governor-General's  relation  to  the  Imperial  Government  on 
the  one  hand  and  to  the  Colonial  Parliament  on  the  other,  no  system 
could  hope  to  be  satisfactory. 

THE    CRUDE    IDEAS    OF    RESPONSIBLE     GOVERNMENT 

Lord  Sydenham  had  the  brains  and  the  tact  and  natural  state- 
craft to  have  worked  out  some  result  which  might  have  averted  years 
of  turmoil  and  much  dissatisfaction  ;  but  he  was  carried  away  by  an 
accidental  fall  from  his  horse  which  ended  in  death  on  September 
19th,  1841.  He  was  not  supposed  to  be  entirely  in  favour  of  the  crude 
ideas  of  responsible  government  which  were  then  in  vogue  but  he 
would  undoubtedly  have  found  a  conciliatory  way  out  of  the  difficulties 
which  developed  later  and  reached  such  a  height  in  the  early  days  of 
Lord  Elgin.      His  successor,  as  Governor-General,  was  Sir  Charles 

Bagot,  a  man  of  ability  who  had  held  the  Ministership  to  Washington 
284 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT  285 

in  days  when  it  was  perhaps  the  most  difficult  diplomatic  post  in  Her 
Majesty's  service.  He  followed,  somewhat  tentatively,  in  the  steps 
of  Lord  Sydenham  and  died  in  March  1843,  without  having  had  any 
serious  friction  with  his  advisers.  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe,  who  came 
out  in  his  place  and  under  appointment  by  a  Conservative  Ministry  at 
home,  was  a  very  different  man  from  either  of  his  predecessors  and 
proved  to  be  the  centre  of  .one  of  the  most  stormy  periods  in 
Canadian  politics. 

THE    TORY    LEADERS 

Meanwhile,  events  had  shown  the  action  of  the  Tory  party  in 
supporting  the  Union  to  be  well  described  as  one  of  self-sacrifice. 
They  were  aware  that  a  House  to  be  elected  under  the  auspices  of  a 
French  majority  in  Lower  Canada,  using  the  privilege  of  the  polls  for 
the  first  time  since  the  days  of  the  rebellion,  and  in  Upper  Canada 
yix\di.^r  \}s\^ prestige  afforded  to  their  opponents  by  supposed  instructions 
from  England  to  grant  responsible  government,  could  not  but  contain 
a  majority  opposed  to  them  and  to  their  principles.  Naturally,  such 
was  the  case,  and  the  House  which  was  met  by  that  staunchest  of 
Tory  leaders,  the  Hon.  W.  H.  Draper,  as  head  of  the  Executive 
Council  of  the  new  Union,  was  largely  Radical  and  French.  The 
Ministry,  if  it  could  even  yet  be  called  by  that  title,  was  composed  of 
Mr.  Draper,  Hon.  R.  B.  Sullivan,  Hon.  S.  B.  Harrison,  Hon.  Dominick 
Daly,  Hon.  C.  R.  Ogden,  Hon.  J.  H.  Dunn,  Hon.  C.  D.  Day,  Hon. 
H.  H.  Killaly,  and,  last  but  not  least,  the  Hon.  Robert  Baldwin. 

Such  a  combination  of  determined  Tories  with  only  onei 
prominent  Liberal,  in  the  person  of  Baldwin,  and  without  a  French 
representative,  naturally  could  have  little  place  in  the  confidence  of 
the  new  Assembly.  Its  very  composition  shows  how  slightly  and  how 
vaguely  the  real  principles  of  responsible  government  were  under- 
stood.    The  fact  is  that  the  Governor-General  was  still  his  own  Prime 

Minister  and  still  the  tenacious  holder  of  power  which  he  believed  to 
16 


286  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

be  essential  to  the  interests  of  the  Mother-country  and  British  con- 
nection. He  could  not  believe  that  it  was  a  part  of  his  duty  to 
surrender  the  prerogatives  of  the  Crown,  in  relation  to  appointments 
and  the  composition  of  his  Executive  Council,  to  any  Minister  or 
body  of  Ministers  who  must  under  the  existing  circumstances  of  the 
case  be  responsible  to  a  party  in  the  Assembly  which  sympathized  very 
largely  with  the  objects  of  the  late  insurrection,  and  some  of  whose 
leaders  seemed  opposed  to  the  principles  of  British  connection  which 
the  Governor-General  was  sworn  and  bound  to  guard. 

It  was  a  difficult  situation  to  face  and  Lord  Sydenham  in  his 
brief  period  of  power  had  temporized  and  had,  no  doubt,  planned 
ways  and  means  to  meet  it  which  he  was  never  able  to  carry 
out.  Sir  Charles  Bagot  did  a  little  more  than  this  when  the  inevitable 
conflict  between  his  Draper  Executive  and  the  House  took  place  and 
Baldwin  resigned  office  ;  he  formed  an  Executive  under  the  joint 
leadership  of  L.  H.  Lafontaine  and  Baldwin  himself.  It  was  a  Liberal 
Ministry  with  a  fair  French  representation  and,  with  the  experience 
of  after  years  in  the  minds  of  both  Governor  and  Ministers,  might  have 
lasted  some  time.  But  such  conditions  could  not,  of  course,  exist  and, 
meanwhile,  Sir  Charles  Metcalfe  arrived  on  the  scene. 

SIR    CHARLES    METCALFE    AS    GOVERNOR 

The  new  Governor  had  served  his  apprenticeship  in  the  rule 
of  millions  of  men  in  India  and  of  lesser  communities  in  the  West 
Indies.  He  was  a  strong-willed,  self-sustained,  patriotic  and  conscien- 
tious man,  devoted  to  the  service  of  his  Sovereign  and  with  something 
of  an  older-time  spirit  of  sincerity  and  loyalty.  But  he  was  hope- 
lessly out  of  touch  with  democratic  aspirations,  without  sympathy  for 
anything  which  seemed  to  touch,  or  threaten,  any  element  of  the 
Royal  prerogative  and  was,  naturally,  therefore,  inclined  to  the  views 
of  the  Tory  party.  As  a  Governor  responsible  to  the  Crown  he  did 
his  duty   freely  and    manfully ;    as   a   Governor    responsible    to    the 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT  287 

people  he  failed  entirely.  Yet,  like  so  many  of  his  predecessors,  he  was 
not  greatly  to  blame,  certainly  not  to  be  condemned  with  that  fierce 
and  free  assurance  which  characterizes  the  political  writers  of  that 
time,  and  frequently  of  the  present,  when  commenting  upon  his  char- 
acter and  career.  To  him  the  Crown  meant  England  and  the  Em- 
pire. As  a  servant  of  his  country  and  the  Representative  of  his 
Sovereign  duty  lay  to  him  in  what  would  best  conserve  their  inter- 
ests ;  and,  like  preceding  Governors,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
Lord  Durham,  he  conceived  those  interests  and  a  united  future  to 
turn  upon  the  maintenance  of  every  power  or  prerogative  still  held 
by  the  Crown. 

In  deliberately  assuming  such  ground  he  was  mistaken  from  all 
the  standpoints  in  the  experience  of  an  after-time,  but  he  was  neither 
unpatriotic,  nor  wicked,  nor  guilty  of  tyranny,  nor  worthy  of  the 
wholesale  abuse  poured  out  by  the  Liberal  and  Radical  papers  and 
politicians  of  the  next  two  years  upon  his  devoted  head.  There  was 
no  doubt  as  to  his  attitude  and  opinions  from  the  first.  Sir  Charles 
arrived  in  1843,  ^^i^  promptly  declared  that  he  intended  to  keep  the 
patronage  in  his  own  hands,  and  to  make  official  appointments  with- 
out the  advice  of  his  Executive  Council.  Certain  vacant  positions 
he  proceeded  to  fill  at  once,  and  the  Baldwin-Lafontaine  Government 
immediately  resigned  office.  Mr.  Draper  re-assumed  the  reins,  a 
general  election  followed  and  the  Governor  and  his  Tory  Council 
were  sustained  by  a  fair  majority.  During  the  ensuing  two  years  a 
loud  and  continuous  discussion  went  on  throughout  the  two  sections 
of  the  Province,  and  much  light  was  thrown  on  the  issue,  despite  the 
virulent  tone  adopted  by  many  of  the  disputants.  Sir  Charles  Met- 
calfe, meantime,  was  raised  to  the  peerage — a  slight  compensation, 
indeed,  for  his  determination  to  do  what  he  deemed  his  duty  at  all 
hazards  and  despite  the  endurance  of  a  cancer  which  was  eating  into 
his  face  and  slowly  but    surely  destroying   his  life.     He  would    not 


288  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

accept  the  relief  of  retirement  and  was  upheld  during  many  months 
of  intense  suffering  by  a  belief  that  he  understood  the  situation  in 
Canada  and  was  in  a  position  to  better  maintain  the  authority  of  the 
Crown  than  any  possible  successor.  From  his  point  of  view  this  was 
undoubtedly  a  fact,  and  the  appreciation  and  admiration  of  those 
opposed  to  responsible  government  was  his  to  the  fullest  degree — 
including  the  support  of  such  a  keen  observer  and  slashing  polemist 
as  Dr.  Egerton  Ryerson. 

THE    EARL    OF    ELGIN's     GOVERNORSHIP 

But  there  are  limits  to  human  endurance  and  toward  the  close 
of  1845  Lord  Metcalfe  returned  home  to  die.  His  successor,  for  a 
brief  period,  was  Earl  Cathcart,  and  then  in  1847  came  the  Earl  of 
Elgin.  Like  Lord  Durham  this  really  great  administrator  possessed 
the  rare  faculty  of  grasping  all  the  threads  of  a  tangled  situation  at 
once  ;  of  bringing  a  chaos  of  conflicting  views  and  honest  sentiments 
and  almost  patriotic  antagonisms  Into  concrete  form  under  the  eye  of 
a  clear  and  impartial  mind.  He  was  able  to  see  that  although  Lafon- 
taine  may  have  played  with  the  burning  brands  of  sedition  in  Its 
earlier  stages  and  Baldwin  have  nursed  a  moderate  sympathy  with 
many  of  the  grievances  of  the  rebels,  yet  they  were  now  men  of 
maturity  of  judgment,  honesty  of  purpose,  and  sincere  loyalty  to  Bri- 
tish connection.  He  was  able  to  understand  that  while  Draper  was 
In  apparently  bitter  antagonism  to  the  wishes  of  a  somewhat  fluctua- 
ting majority  of  the  people  and  McNab  an  earnest  and  avowed  oppo- 
nent of  popular  government,  yet  the  one  was  an  honourable,  patriotic 
and  able  man  and  the  other  a  citizen  of  whose  sincerity  and  undoubted 
services  the  country  had  every  reason  to  be  proud.  He  was  able  to 
grasp  the  existence  of  a  love  for  liberty  amongst  Liberals  which  was 
above  and  apart  from  the  much-feared  principles  of  American  demo- 
cracy ;  a  love  for  power  amongst  the  Tories  which  was  superior  to 
and  distinct  from  the  mere  desire  for  ofnce  and  position. 


THE  HON.  GEORGE   BROWN 

Senator  of  Canada 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT  291 

Moreover,  the  Liberals  were  again  in  power  in  England  and 
willing  to  risk  a  possible  loss  in  British  prerogative  and  nominal 
power  in  return  for  some  release  from  burdensome  responsibility  and 
for  a  measure  of  real  peace  in  the  Colonies.  His  instructions  were 
therefore  more  elastic,  his  powers  wider  and  the  room  for  exercising 
natural  ability  and  faculty  for  statesmanlike  observation,  much  greater 
than  had  been  the  case  before.  While  these  facts  stand  to  the  credit 
of  English  Liberalism  at  this  juncture  they  do  not  relieve  it  from  sus- 
picion as  to  the  motive  underlying  the  action.  That  it  turned  out 
well  and  promoted  loyalty  while  broadening  the  bounds  of  liberty  is 
true,  but  that  it  was  part  of  a  general  tendency  to  loosen  the  ties  of 
Imperial  unity  and  encourage  the  development  of  Colonial  indepen- 
dence, is  also  true,  and  is  amply  proved  by  Lord  Elgin's  published 
correspondence  during  this  period.* 

It  was  now  the  early  stages  of  the  Manchester  School  ascendency 
and,  while  good  in  this  particular  instance  came  out  of  an  evil  which 
would  have  wrecked  the  Empire  in  its  complete  development,  yet  jus- 
tice should  be  done  to  some  of  the  Tories  who  opposed  responsible 
government  in  England  because  they  feared  independence  as  well  as 
to  the  Liberals  who  granted  it  because  they  did  not  greatly  dread  the 
possibility  of  independence.  Hitherto  British  politics  had  only  occa- 
sionally been  exhibited  in  matters  of  Colonial  administration  and  then 
only  in  details.  Upon  the  broad  principle  of  maintaining  the  Gover- 
nor's prerogative  and  refusing  full  responsible  government  Home- 
parties  had  been  united.  Now  they  divided,  for  a  time,  only  to  combine 
in  some  twenty  years  of  practical  indifference  to  all  Colonial  affairs — a 
policy  of  letting  the  Colonies  do  much  as  they  pleased. 

Lord  Elgin  was  supposed  to  be  a  Conservative  in  politics,  but 
people  had  come  to  discount  any  probabilities  based  upon  individual 
preferences  of  this  nature.   Sir  Francis  Bond  Head  had  been  heralded 

♦  Walrond's  Life  and  Letters  of  the  Earl  of  Elgin  and  Kincardine, 


29a  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

as  an  English  Liberal  and  had  most  strenuously  supported  the  Cana- 
dian Tories ;  Sir  Charles  Bagot  was  a  Conservative  but  had  held  the 
reins  with  considerable  fairness  ;  Lord  Metcalfe  himself  had  been 
announced  as  a  Liberal  in  English  politics.  The  new  Governor- 
General  was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  either  above  these  distinctions  or 
had  made  up  his  mind  to  be  uninfluenced  by  them.  And  he  found 
one  factor  greatly  in  his  favour.  Preceding  Governors  had  found 
Canadian  affairs  a  hopeless  jumble  of  conflicting  policies  and  ideas 
with  only  one  clearly  defined  principle  visible  upon  the  stormy  sur- 
face— the  Tory  one  of  opposition  to  democratic  innovation.  The 
Liberals  had  not  known  exactly  what  they  wanted,  or  if  they  did,  in 
an  occasional  and  individual  case,  understand  what  was  required 
and  how  it  was  to  be  worked  out,  there  was  no  authoritative  medium 
for  its  presentation,  no  clear  summary  of  purpose  and  plan  for  popu- 
ular  approval. 

THE      PRINCIPLES    OF    THE    LIBERAL    PLATFORM 

There  was  now,  however,  a  Liberal  platform  of  the  most  pro- 
nounced kind.   Its  cardinal  principle  was  that  a  Provincial  Government, 
should,  in  the  fullest  measure,  be  a  Parliamentary  Government  and 
that  no  Ministry  could  or  should  stay  in  office  after  it  had  lost  the 
control  of  the  Assembly.    If  defeat  came  in  the  House  and  an  appeal 
was  made  to  the  country  its  resignation  could  be  held  over  until  the 
result  of  the  elections  was  known.   Should  that  result  be  adverse  resig- 
nation must  instantly  follow.     This  involved  the  change  of  the  Exe- 
cutive Council  into  a  departmental  Government,  such  as  that  of  Great 
Britain,  and  a  complete  alteration  in  the  position  of  the  Governor- 
^  General.     Instead  of  being  merely  the  guardian  of   British  interests, 
or  supposed  British  interests  in  the  Province,  he  was,  as  the  Queen's 
Representative,  to  take  the  Queen's  place  in  the  constitution.   "  What 
the  Queen  cannot  do  in  England,"  they  declared,   "  the  Governor 
should  not  be  permitted  to  do  in  Canada."     In  making  Imperial 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT  293 

appointments  the  Crown  is  bound  to  consult  its  advisers  ;  in  making 
Provincial  appointments  the  Governor  should  be  similarly  bound.  No 
Governor  should  identify  himself  with  any  political  party — and,  it 
might  have  been  fair  to  add,  no  political  party  should  place  itself  in 
open  antagonism  to  the  Governor. 

The  majority  in  the  Assembly,  for  the  time  being,  they  considered 
to  embody  the  existing  opinion  of  the  country  and,  provided  such 
views  did  not  clash  with  Imperial  interests,  they  should  not  be  inter- 
fered with  by  the  Governor.  Local  matters  should  not  be  referred  to 
the  Colonial  Office  for  settlement.  "  To  Canadians  alone  must  the 
Governor  look  for  ratification  and  approval  of  his  conduct  in  the 
management  of  their  domestic  affairs ;  to  the  Imperial  Government 
alone  he  is  to  render  an  account  of  his  stewardship  in  the  conserva- 
tion of  Imperial  interests."  Such  a  policy  was  apparently  complete 
in  its  parts,  logical  in  its  application  *  and  loyal  in  its  final  statement 
that  the  Liberals  of  Canada  desired  to  maintain  the  Crown,  through 
its  Representative  in  the  Province,  "  as  an  harmonious  component  of 
their  local  constitution." 

It  was  the  practical  result  of  three  or  four  decades  of  groping  in 
the  dark  for  a  solution  of  difficulties  which  were  inevitable,  and  not 
in  themselves  disastrous,  and  which  would  have  naturally  moderated 
under  the  influences  of  time  and  British  progressiveness  without  all 
the  turmoil  and  tumult  which  had  actually  marked  the  process.  It 
was  a  policy  which,  in  its  full  form,  the  Governor-General  could  now. 
accept,  and  it  was  the  first  time  that  such  had  really  been  the  case. 
Theory  in  multitudinous  shapes  had  so  far  influenced  very  largely  the 
Liberal  party  ;  they  had  now  united  logic  with  theory  and  Lord  Elgin 

♦The  one  weakness  in  the  structure  eventually  evolved  under  Lord  Elgin,  and  acted  upon  up  to  Confederation, 
was  the  practical  absence  of  a  Prime  Minister,  and  the  tendency  of  the  people  to  still  look  to  the  Governor-General 
when  they  should  have  looked  to  the  Ministry  alone.  Too  much  stress  was  laid  by  agitators  during  all  this  period 
upon  the  attitude  of  the  Governor  toward  the  people  ;  too  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  position  of  the  people 
toward  the  Governor.  It  was  not  till  the  Dominion  was  created  that  the  chcgks  and  balances  necessary  to  a  smoothly 
working  constitution  cftme  into  full  operation.  ., 


294  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

was  able  to  transform  the  combination  into  practice.  He  did  not 
meet  the  problem  with  any  profound  belief  that  because  a  system  is 
old  it  is  good,  or  because  it  is  new  it  is  better.  Speaking  on  a  politi- 
cal platform  at  Southampton  in  1841,- he  had  declared  himself  a  Con- 
servative "  not  upon  principles  of  exclusionism  ;  or  illiberalism  of 
'  sentiment ;  but  because  I  believe  that  our  admirable  constitution  pro- 
claims between  men  of  all  classes  and  degrees  in  the  body-politic  a 
sacred  bond  of  brotherhood  in  the  recognition  of  a  common  warfare 
here  and  a  common  hope  hereafter.  I  am  a  Conservative  not  because 
I  am  adverse  to  improvement,  not  because  I  am  unwilling  to  repair 
what  is  wasted,  or  to  supply  what  is  defective  in  the  political  fabric, 
but  because  I  am  satisfied  that  in  order  to  improve  effectually  you 
must  be  resolved  most  religiously  to  preserve." 

Such  sentiments  of  moderation  should  have  conciliated  parties 
in  Canada,  and  would,  indeed,  have  been  an  excellent  basis  upon 
which  to  act  amongst  themselves.  Though  he  had  only  served  for  a 
time  as  Governor  of  Jamaica  and  was  not  at  this  period  a  large  figure 
in  politics  or  administration  at  home,  Lord  Elgin  had  an  undoubted 
reputation  for  ability  and  was  known  to  have  pleased  all  parties  in 
Jamaica — a  very  difficult  task.  Moreover,  he  had  just  been  married 
a  second  time  and  to  no  less  a  personage  than  a  daughter  of  the  Lord 
Durham  whose  memory  was  now  enshrined  in  the  heart  of  English- 
speaking  Liberals  all  over  British  America.  The  new  Governor 
received  a  warm  reception  everywhere  and  at  Montreal  struck  the 
keynote  of  his  future  administration  by  saying :  "  I  am  sensible  that 
I  shall  best  maintain  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown,  and  most  effectu- 
ally carry  out  the  instructions  with  which  Her  Majesty  has  honoured 
me,  by  manifesting  a  due  regard  for  the  wishes  and  feelings  of  the 
people  and  by  seeking  the  advice  and  assistance  of  those  who  enjoy 
their  confidence."  Lord  Elgin  impressed  himself  favourably  upon 
everyone.     Young  and  energetic,  genial  in  temperament  and  manner, 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT  295 

dignified  in  bearing  and,  at  the  same  time,  pleasant  and  accessible, 
he  also  proved  an  admirable  speaker  and  soon  won  the  reputation  of 
being  the  best  in  the  Province.  Like  Lord  Dufferin,  in  after  years, 
he  could  be  depended  upon  to  say  in  graceful  and  fitting  words  the 
right  thing  in  the  right  place. 

)  FALL   OF   THE    DRAPER    MINISTRY 

The  Draper  Ministry  was  now  tottering  to  its  fall,  and  the  Tory 
party,  as  being  identified  with  a  policy  which  had  become  one  of 
simple  drifting  with  the  tide,  was  like  a  boat  without  a  rudder.  Mr. 
Draper  had  tired  of  a  prolonged  struggle,  in  which  the  fates  seemed 
against  him,  and  wanted  to  retire  to  the  Bench.  But  there  was  no 
one  upon  whom  the  party  could  unite,  and  there  was  no  policy  other 
than  the  negative  one  of  standing  by  certain  old-fashioned  principles 
which  the  Imperial  Government  was  said  to  have  repudiated  and 
which  now  depended,  for  even  temporary  maintenance,  upon  the  will- 
ingness of  the  Governor-General  to  occupy  the  same  political  boat  as 
the  Executive.     Lord  Elcrin  took  occasion  at  once  to  intimate  that 

o 

he  would  do  nothing  of  the  sort.  So  far  as  he  was  concerned  parties 
must  sink  or  swim  upon  their  own  ability  to  breast  the  tide  of  public 
opinion.  >He  would  give  their  leaders  the  fullest  freedom  of  action 
and  would  co-operate  cordially  with  the  successful  party  in  carrying 
on  the  local  Government  according  to  the  wishes  of  the  majority. 
To  Draper  and  McNab  and  others  this  seemed  a  sheer  abrogation  of 
the  functions  of  an  Imperial  administrator  ;  a  sacrifice  of  one  of  the 
few  remaining  shreds  of  British  power  over  Provincial  affairs.  But 
to  it  they  had  to  submit. 

Lord  Elgin  did  not  act  hastily  or  rashly.  His  Ministry  had  not 
the  confidence  of  the  Assembly,  but  he  saw  that  it  was  in  process  of 
natural  dissolution  and  he  let  things  take  their  course.  In  May,  1847, 
Mr.  Draper  resigned  and  accepted  a  position  as  Judge  of  the  Court 
of  Queen's  Bench  for  Upper  Canada,  and  nine  years  later  became 


296  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  He  lived  to  see  the 
Dominion  an  accomplished  fact  and  the  principles  he  had  so  strongly 
and  conscientiously  opposed,  forming  the  keynote  of  a  national  con- 
stitution. He,  himself,  served  as  President  of  Ontario's  Court  of 
Appeal  for  many  years,  was  the  recipient  of  a  C.  B.  from  the  Queen, 
and  died  in  1877,  with  the  highest  possible  reputation  for  judicial 
ability,  industry  and  stainless  honour.  His  political  successor  for  a 
brief  period  was  Mr.  Henry  Sherwood,  a  Tory  of  the  Tories,  whose 
Ministry  in  its  reconstructed  state  was  chiefly  notable  for  the  presence 
of  Mr.  John  A.  Macdonald,  who  had  entered  the  Assembly  from 
Kingston  in  1844,  and  for  the  absence  of  French  Canadian  repre- 
sentatives— only  one  being  obtainable  after  prolonged  negotiations. 
The  Tory  party  was  still,  in  reputation,  the  party  opposed  to  French 
influence,  the  party  of  believers  in  French  disloyalty,  the  party  of 
sympathizers  with  everything  which  would  restrict  French  develop- 
ment along  distinct  lines.  The  Sherwood  Ministry  held  on  to  power 
with  the  utmost  persistence.  They  could,  however,  pass  no  measure 
of  value,  were  continually  defeated  in  the  House,  and  only  managed 
to  struggle  through  a  session  on  that  sufferance  which  feels  that  the 
last  stages  of  an  unendurable  situation  have  been  reached  and  must 
be  settled  by  a  coming  general  election. 

The  general  position  of  affairs  was  very  gloomy.  The  repeal  of 
the  Corn-Laws  and  of  the  preferential  British  tariff  had  plunged  the 
Province  into  financial  disaster  and  caused  intense  popular  discontent. 
The  feeling  between  French  and  English  in  Canada  East  was  still 
acute.  The  immigration  of  thousands  of  Irish  paupers,  seeking  escape 
from  the  frightful  famine  of  the  time,  had  cast  upon  Canadian  shores 
a  multitude  of  people  who  arrived  there  simply  to  die  of  the  ship- 
fever  which  had  developed  during  their  voyage,  or  else  to  throw  them- 
selves upon  Canadian  charity  and  kindness.  They  did  not  ask  for 
help  in  vain.     At  Quebec,  during  1847,  o^^^  100,000  persons  landed 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENl  297 

and  of  these  10,000  were  to  be  found  in  the  hospitals  at  one  time. 
Other  places,  such  as  Montreal  and  Toronto  and  Kingston,  faced  the 
same  trouble  and  with  the  same  generosity  nursed  the  sick,  succoured 
the  starving  and  cared  for  the  homeless.  In  Montreal,  alone,  there 
were  1,000  orphans  left  destitute  as  a  result  of  this  appalling  immi- 
gration and  disease.  Sick  and  suffering  people  streamed  up  the  St. 
Lawrence,  pushed  towards  the  Lakes  in  over-crowded  steamers  and 
burdened  the  inhabitants  of  the  western  towns  and  villages.  The 
response  was  everywhere  the  same,  and  from  the  poor  as  well  as  the 
wealthy,  from  the  Indian  and  the  negro  as  well  as  the  white  man, 
relief  poured  in  to  the  Committees  which  were  formed.  Large  sums 
were  ultimately  distributed  in  Ireland  as  well  as  in  Canada.  Deeds  of 
heroism  in  the  hospitals  of  the  time  were  many — the  heroism  of 
nurses  and  clergymen  who  were  willing  to  die,  if  necessary,  in  order  to 
nurse  and  minister  to  the  sick.  More  than  one  Roman  Catholic  ecclesi- 
astic perished  in  this  memorable  season  of  suffering  and  self-sacrifice. 
Such  events  could  not  but  re-act  upon  the  political  situation 
when  preparations  were  being  made  for  an  election  which  was  des- 
tined to  be  of  the  greatest  importance  as  an  historical  landmark  and 
as  finally  decisive  of  a  change  already  impending.  Lord  Elgin  did 
his  best,  in  the  meantime,  to  soothe  asperities  and  to  promote  a  good- 
feeling  which  might  lessen  the  bitterness  of  the  contest.  He  made  a 
tour  of  Canada  East  and  won  the  hearts  of  the  people  everywhere 
with  his  silvery  speech  and  pleasing  manner.  Amongst  the  French- 
Canadians  he  carried  everything  before  him  by  speaking  to  the 
habitants  in  their  native  tongue.  Early  in  December,  1847,  ^he 
Assembly  was  dissolved,  on  January  24,  1848,  the  elections  were 
held  and  both  divisions  of  the  Province  swept  by  the  Liberals.  Par- 
liament met  in  February,  the  Hon.  A.  N.  Morin  was  elected  Speaker 
of  the  Assembly  over  Sir  A.  N.  McNab  on  a  party  vote,  the  Govern- 
ment was  defeated  on  the  Address  and  promptly  resigned.     A  new 


298  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

Ministry  was  at  once  formed  which  is  notable  not  only  as  being  the 
first  under  the  system  of  actual  responsible  government,  but  as  con- 
taining many  able  men  and  as  initiating  the  recognition  of  an  equal 
right  amongst  French  and  English  representatives  to  a  place  in  its 
composition.  In  accordance,  also,  with  an  arrangement  which  was 
now  to  become  an  unwritten  law  there  was  an  Attorney-General  from 
Canada  East  and  one  from  Canada  West,  holding  equal  powers  and 
controlling  the  political  patronage  and  party  policy  of  their  respective 
communities.  One  was  supposed  to  be  Premier,  but  his  position  was 
very  vague  and  his  actual  superiority  still  more  so — a  condition  which 
illustrates  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  and  the  fact  that  the  English 
system  in  its  full  form  was  not  found  applicable  by  even  the  Liberal 
party  in  its  day  of  power.     The  Government  was  made  up  as  follows  : 

CANADA    EAST    OR    LOWER   CANADA 
Hon.  Louis  H.  Lafontaine,  Attorney-General, 
Hon .  James  Lesslie,  President  of  Executive  Council, 
Hon.  R.  E.  Caron,  Speaker  of  Legislative  Council, 
Hon.  E.  P.  Tach6,   Chief  Commissioner  of  Public  Works, 
Hon.  T.  C.  Aylwin,  Solicitor-General. 

CANADA    WEST    OR    UPPER   CANADA 
Hon.  Robert  Baldwin,  Attorney-General, 
Hon.  R.  B.  Sullivan,  Provincial  Secretary, 
Hon.  Francis  Hincks,  Inspector-General, 
Hon.  J.  H.  Price,   Commissioner  of  Crown  Lands, 
Hon.  Malcolm  Cameron,  Assistant-Commissioner  of  Public  Works, 
Hon.  W.  Hume  Blake,  Solicitor-General. 

The  succeeding  session  was  a  short  but  satisfactory  one  and  the 
storm  of  the  coming  period  was  as  yet  only  a  tiny  cloud  on  the  hori- 
zon. Lord  Elgin  found  the  new  Government  amenable,  conciliatory, 
and  far  indeed  from  what  the  Liberals  were  honestly  believed  to  be 
by  the  late   Lord  Metcalfe.     He  was  not  asked  to  surrender  any 


THE  REV.  DR.  GEORGE  DOUGLAS  THE  REV.  PRINCIPAL  CAVEN,  D.D. 


THE  REV.  DR.  JOHN  COOK 


THE  REV.  DR.  JAMES  RICHARDSON 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT  301 

prerogative  of  importance  and  his  opinion  upon  appointments  seems  to 
have  been  freely  consulted.  "  I  have  tried  both  systems,"  he  wrote 
privately  in  1849.  "In  Jamaica  there  was  no  responsible  government 
but  I  had  not  half  the  power  I  have  here  with  my  constitutional  and 
changing  Cabinet."  No  doubt  this  was  somewhat  due  to  his  own  per- 
sonality, to  his  kindly  disposition,  his  cordial  courtesy,  his  sympathetic 
insight  into  difficulties  and  a  certain  quality  of  instinctive  statecraft 
which  was  always  at  the  service  of  his  Government  whether  Liberal 
or  Tory. 

PROGRESS   IN    THE    ATLANTIC    PROVINCES 

Meanwhile,  events  in  the  Maritime  Provinces  had  been  steadily 
developing  toward  the  same  end  of  responsible  government.  Lord 
John  Russell's  despatch  regarding  the  tenure  of  office  was  regarded  by 
the  Liberal  party  in  New  Brunswick  as  practically  granting  their 
demands  and  was  read  by  Sir  John  Harvey  to  the  Legislature  in 
1839  ^^^  a-fi  intimation  of  his  willingness  to  put  it  in  operation.  But 
he  was  personally  so  popular,  his  administration  so  acceptable  and 
the  people  were  so  naturally  Conservative,  that  it  was  received  with 
indifference  and  the  Assembly  actually  passed  a  Resolution,  by  one 
vote,  against  the  establishment  of  a  responsible  system.  Later  on, 
Sir  William  Colebrooke  became  Governor  and,  in  the  midst  of  Lord 
Metcalfe's  bitter  controversy  with  the  Liberals  in  Canada,  the  Legis- 
lature still  further  signalized  its  position  bypassing  Resolutions  thank- 
ing the  Governor-General  for  his  firm  and  vigorous  stand  against 
republicanism.  But,  by  1848,  the  influence  of  new  developments  in 
Canada  had  proved  too  strong  for  even  New  Brunswick  Conserva- 
tism and  its  happy  condition  of  having  little  real  ground  for  complaint. 
A  measure  in  favour  of  responsible  government  was  therefore  sup- 
ported by  both  parties  and  a  Ministry  formed  to  which  Lemuel  A. 
Wilmot  and  Charles  Fisher,  the  two  Liberal  leaders,  were  duly 
appointed.     This,  however,  was  a  coalition  and  it  was  not  till   1854, 


joi  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

after  tbe  holding  of  a  general  election,  that  the  Liberals  in  this  Prov- 
ince came  into  full  power  and  formed  a  distinctly  responsible  Ministry. 

In  Nova  Scotia  affairs  were  very  different.  There  was  no  calm 
stream  of  indifferent  prog'ress  toward  an  inevitable  consummation,  in 
its  politics.  The  Governor,  Sir  Colin  Campbell,*  was  a  man  of  mili- 
tary mind  with  Metcalfe-like  ideas  of  right  and  wrong  and  with  his 
sense  of  duty  to  the  Imperial  Government  developed  at  the  expense 
of  any  duty  he  might  be  supposed  to  owe  the  people.  He  was,  in 
short,  a  Governor,  and  not  the  head  of  a  distinct  constitutional  sys- 
tem based  upon  British  precedent.  As  such,  he  looked  upon  the 
Russell  despatch  of  1839  as  a  product  of  Home  partisanship  and  as 
apart  altogether  from  his  duty  to  the  Crown.  The  Assembly,  under 
the  influence  of  Howe's  burning  speech  and  sweeping  invective,  passed 
a  strong  Resolution  of  non-confidence  in  the  Executive;  which  the 
Governor  received  with  the  intimation  that  his  advisers  were  quite 
acceptable  to  him. 

The  leaders  in  Nova  Scotia  at  this  time  were  brilliant  men  and 
fitted,  many  of  them,  to  adorn  a  wider  and  greater  field  than  destiny 
ever  offered.  Joseph  Howe  was,  of  course,  first  and  foremost. 
None  could  touch  him  in  eloquence,  logic  of  argument,  force  of 
invective,  or  brilliancy  of  rhetoric,  and  it  is  a  question  if  the  Do- 
minion has  ever  produced  his  equal  in  these  respects.  James  Boyle 
Uniacke  was  a  strong  man  in  many  respects,  while  William  Young, 
who  lived  to  be  knighted  by  the  Queen,  and  to  act  for  twenty-one 
years  as  Chief  Justice  of  the  Province,  combined  sound  judgment 
with  eloquence  of  speech.  The  equal  of  any  of  the  Liberal  leaders 
in  political  ability  and  sincerity,  and  the  superior  of  all  but  Howe  in 
oratorical  power,  was  the  Tory  chief — James  W.  Johnston.  He  won 
elections  in  the  teeth  of  his  rival's  more  popular  policy  and  always 
held  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  own  party.     Howe's  attacks 

*  He  was  not  the  famous  Lord  Clyde,  of  Indian  memory,  as  some  Canadian  writers  have  stated. 


STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT  303 

upon  the  Lieutenant-Governor  at  this  time  were  almost  intolerable.  To 
say  that  they  were  scathing  and  slashing  is  to  use  a  very  mild  phrase. 
Their  brilliancy  was  only  equalled  by  a  bitterness  which  was  vitriolic  in 
its  intensity  and  which  found  expression  not  only  in  speech,  but  in  news- 
paper articles,  and  in  letters  to  the  Colonial  Secretary  which  are 
classics,  as  truly  and  fully,  as  anything  ever  penned  by  Junius. 

The  inevitable  result  followed.  Sir  Colin  Campbell  was  recalled 
and  Lord  Falkland,  during  the  six  years  beginning  in  September, 
1840,  ruled  in  his  place.  It  was  an  uneasy  crown  which  he  placed  on 
his  head.  The  preliminary  compromise  of  appointing  three  Liberal 
leaders — Howe,  Uniacke  and  McNab — to  seats  in  the  Executive, 
without  accepting  their  principles,  was  fore-doomed  to  failure  and, 
after  Howe  and  Johnston  had  managed  to  mix  oil  and  water  long 
enough  to  pass  a  much  debated  measure  incorporating  Halifax,  the 
coalition  naturally  dissolved. 

Apart  from  the  general  and  vague  question  of  responsibility  to 
the  Assembly  there  were  strong  differences  between  the  leaders  on 
purely  local  issues.  Howe  favoured  free  common  schools  and  one 
Provincial  University.  Johnston,  like  the  Tories  of  all  the  Provinces 
in  his  day,  favoured  denominational  schools  and  colleges  with  Pro- 
vincial grants — in  brief  the  union  of  Church  and  State  principle. 
In  1844  the  disruption  had  come.  Falkland  accepted  the  resignation 
of  the  Liberals  and  then  endeavoured  to  win  over  the  masses  from 
their  party  allegiance  to  Howe.  It  was  a  not  unnatural  thing  to  do 
at  such  a  juncture,  but  it  once  more  revived  the  implacable  spirit  from 
which  his  predecessor  had  suffered  so  greatly.  Henceforth,  Lord 
Falkland  was,  for  the  two  years  preceding  his  recall,  able  to  fully 
comprehend  the  limitless  possibilities  of  the  English  language  and  the 
force  of  Howe's  keen  and  merciless  invective. 

In  1846  he  was  relieved,  and  the  ever  useful,  genial  and  popular 
Sir  John  Harvey  was  appointed  to  the  position.     It  was  not  an  easy 


304  STRUGGLES  FOR  RESPONSIBLE  GOVERNMENT 

one,  even  for  him,  to  fill.  If  he  publicly  favoured  responsible  gov- 
ernment he  would  be  breaking  one  of  its  cardinal  principles  by 
defying  advisers  who  now  held  a  majority  in  both  Houses ;  if  he  did  not 
do  so  all  the  political  bitterness  of  the  Liberal  leaders  would  be 
poured  upon  him  as  it  had  been  upon  Campbell  and  Falkland.  He 
tried  a  compromise  by  inviting  Howe  and  his  associates  to  take 
places  in  the  Council.  But  they  refused  and,  finally,  a  tacit  compro- 
mise was  arrived  at  by  which  all  parties  agreed  to  await  the  coming 
elections.  Late  in  1847  these  took  place,  and  the  Liberals  were  vic- 
torious by  a  fair  majority.  Johnston  resigned  and  a  Government  was 
formed  under  new  conditions  and  with  the  same  understanding  which 
now  prevailed  in  the  Canadas — that  the  Governor  would  freely  and 
fully  accept  the  responsibility  of  his  Ministers  to  the  Assembly 
instead  of  to  himself.  Howe  was  the  most  prominent  member  of  the 
new  Executive  and  with  him  were  Lawrence  O'Connor  Doyle,  James 
Boyle  Uniacke,  James  McNab,  Herbert  Huntington,  George  R. 
Young  and  other  representatives  of  Provincial  Liberalism  and  of  the 
prolonged  struggle  for  responsible  government. 


CHAPTER  XV 

Political  Reforms  and  General  Progress 

} 

GREAT  reforms  and  changes  mark  the  period  from  1848  to 5 
1866.  Responsible  government  had  not  worked  as  smoothly 
as  its  friends  had  hoped,  and  in  time  it  developed  conditions 
which  created  an  absolute  deadlock  in  the  functions  of  government 
in  the  two  Canadas.  But  it,  none  the  less,  opened  the  way  for  legis- 
lation of  a  useful  character,  broadened  the  minds  of  those  public  men 
who  were  able  to  grasp  an  enlarged  though  complicated  situation  and 
presented  opportunities  of  achievement  to  the  master-mind  of  Cana- 
dian history — John  A.  Macdonald. 

RACIAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    SENTIMENT 

Although  Lord  Elgin  had  given  his  fullest  confidence  to  the 
new  Baldwin-Lafontaine  Ministry,  and  was  prepared,  and  able,  to 
freely  carry  out  the  principles  of  responsible  government,  he  and  they 
alike  had  a  most  difficult  task  before  them.  Feeling  was  still  very 
bitter  among  the  French  in  Lower  Canada  against  everything  that 
savoured  of  English  domination  or  Protestant  influence  ;  the  Liberal 
party  of  Upper  Canada,  or  Canada  West,  was  coming  under  the  influ- 
ence of  George  Brown's  towering  and  agressive  personality  and  of  his 
bitter  opposition  to  what  he  believed  to  be  the  dangers  of  French  and 
ecclesiastical  domination  in  the  public  life  of  united  Canada.  And  upon 
this  rock  of  conflicting  racial  and  religious  sentiment  the  strong  Govern- 
ment of  the  moment  was  ultimately  to  break  up.  It  had  also  to  face 
the  slowly  rising  influence  and  organizing  force  of  John  A.  Macdonald 
amongst  the  Conservatives,  as  well  as  the  unifying  party  effect  which 
the  storms  of  the  Rebellion  Losses  Bill  was  destined  to  have. 

»7  305 


306  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

This  latter  extraordinary  episode  affected  the  Governor-General 
far  more  than  it  did  his  Ministry.  There  was  still  no  conception  in 
either  party  of  the  fact  that  a  responsible  Ministry  meant  one  which 
was  not  only  responsible  for  the  distribution  of  places  and  patronage 
but  also  for  legislation  of  every  kind — whether  controlled  by  its 
initiative  or  approved  by  the  Queen's  Representative  upon  its  advice. 
People  did  not  seem  to  understand  that  they  had  been  asking  for,  and 
had  now  obtained,  a  condition  of  things  similar  to  that  in  England 
where  no  party  or  section  dreamt  of  attacking  the  Crown,  but 
assumed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  once  a  Ministry  was  formed  it 
became  responsible  for  the  entire  policy  of  the  Government. 

A    CURIOUS    SITUATION 

They  still  looked  to  the  Governor-General  to  correct  the  mis- 
takes, or  supposed  mistakes,  of  his  own  Cabinet  by  either  a  veto  or 
a  reference  to  England  ;  and  this  popular  feeling  affords  more  excuse 
than  perhaps  any  other  fact  for  the  earlier  and  conscientious  opposi- 
tion of  the  Tories  to  the  whole  plan  of  responsible  government. 
But  if,  as  Draper  and  his  associates  believed  in  1841,  the  public 
neither  understood  nor  were  prepared  for  the  carrying  out  of  this 
policy  what  is  to  be  said  about  the  situation  in  1848,  when  a  large 
section  of  the  people  of  Montreal  destroyed  the  Parliament  Build- 
ings and  a  larger  and  more  politically  mixed  mass  of  people  in  Upper 
Canada  petitioned  the  Crown  to  remove  Lord  Elgin  for  not  having 
refused  the  advice  of  his  responsible  Ministers  and  repudiated  the 
voice  of  a  large  Parliamentary  majority  !  It  was  a  curious  situation 
and  the  details  are  not  the  least  interesting  in  Canada's  complex 
story. 

During  the  preceding  Draper  administration  the  Government 
had  brought  in  a  measure  and  the  House  had  supported  it,  giving  a 
compensation  of  some  ^40,000  to  the  loyal  sufferers  from  the  rebellion 
in  Upper  Canada.     A  demand  for  similar  treatment  had,  of  course, 


POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS  zpj 

been  at  once  received  from  the  French-Canadian  representatives,  but 
was  opposed  by  the  Loyalists  of  Upper  Canada  on  the  ground  that, 
practically,  all  the  people  of  the  Lower  Province  who  had  not  actually 
participated  in  the  insurrection  had  sympathized  with  it.  In  some 
measure,  and  especially  in  connection  with  the  various  stages  of  the 
movement  which  led  up  to  the  rebellion,  this  impression  was  prob- 
ably correct ;  but  so  far  as  a  large  portion  of  the  people  were  con- 
cerned during  the  actual  risings  it  was  incorrect.  Still,  the  very 
assumption  and  its  expression  in  Parliament,  shows  the  racial  and 
political  tension  which  existed.  The  Draper  Government,  therefore, 
compromised  matters  for  the  moment  by  appointing  a  Commission 
which  ultimately  reported  that  while  the  claims  in  Lower  Canada 
amounted  to  ^250,000,  an  indemnity  of  ^ioo,cxx)  would  probably 
cover  the  actual  losses.  The  Government  awarded  ;i^  10,000,  and  in 
doing  so  angered  the  French-Canadians  by  its  utter  disproportion  to 
the  amount  of  their  claims  and  its  own  party  by  the  admission  of 
what  they  believed  to  be  a  dangerous  principle. 

THE    REBELLION    LOSSES    BILL 

During  the  two  or  three  years  of  varied  events  which  followed, 
and  with  a  Government  trembling  in  the  balance,  the  matter  was 
allowed  to  drop.  But  it  was  not  forgotten  and,  as  soon  as  the  La- 
fontaine-Baldwin  Ministry  was  installed  Tn  office,  the  agitation  in 
French  Canada  began  to  revive.  By  the  time  the  Legislature  had 
met  at  Montreal,  in  1849,  ^^^  question  had  reached  an  issue  which 
demanded  settlement  and  was  met,  first  by  a  series  of  Resolutions 
which  Mr.  Lafontaine  moved  and  rapidly  passed  through  the  Assem- 
bly and  then  by  a  Bill  based  upon  the  principles  thus  accepted.  The 
preamble  to  this  measure  for  "  the  indemnification  of  parties  in  Lower 
Canada  whose  property  was  destroyed  during  the  rebellion  in  the 
years  1837  and  1838,"  declared  that  a  minute  inquiry  should  be  made 
regarding  such  losses  and  that  proven  claims  for  compensation  should 


3o8  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

be  paid  and  satisfied.  It  was  provided  that  none  who  had  been  con- 
victed of  treason  during  the  rebellion,  or  after  being  arrested  had 
admitted  their  guilt,  or  had  been  included  amongst  those  transported 
to  Bermuda,  should  be  entitled  to  any  indemnity.  Five  Commission- 
ers were  to  be  appointed  for  the  carrying  out  of  these  proposals  and 
;,^ 1 00,000  was  appropriated  for  the  compensation  of  claims. 

The  result  of  the  introduction  of  this  measure  was  a  storm 
which  threatened  to  shake  the  new  system  of  government  to  its 
roots.  The  debates  in  Parliament  were  fierce  beyond  all  precedent — 
,  even  in  the  breezy  days  of  Papineau's  invective  against  British 
domination  and  tyranny.  The  Loyalists,  the  Tories,  and  even  many 
moderate  English-speaking  Liberals  throughout  the  country,  as  well 
as  in  the  Legislature,  denounced  the  measure  as  an  attempt  to  reward 
rebellion,  to  indemnify  treason,  to  approve  sedition.  It  was  a  rebel 
Government  patting  rebellion  on  the  back.  It  was  a  case  of  men 
who  had  participated  in,  or  had  approved  of,  the  insurrection  making 
an  effort  to  express  their  sympathy  by  voting  public  money  to  their 
friends.  It  was  the  bribe  offered  by  Baldwin  for  the  present  help 
and  co-operation  of  Lafontaine  and  the  French-Canadian  members. 
These  are  strong  words,  but  they  only  faintly  indicate  the  utterances 
of  the  exasperated  Loyalists  led  by  Sir  Allan  McNab,  Mr.  Sherwood, 
the  veteran  Colonel  Prlnife,  and  others  who  had  proved  their  feelings 
in  the  field  against  the  very  rebellion  which  was  thus  being  condoned. 

It  is  not  difficult  at  this  distance  of  time  to  sympathize  with  the 
bitterness  of  the  Tory  view  while  approving  the  general  policy  of  the 
Government  and  deprecating  what  followed.  To  the  former  there 
was  no  justification  whatever  for  the  risings  of  1837-8.  A  rebel  was 
a  criminal  who  deserved  only  punishment.  Loyalty  to  the  Crown, 
which  was  the  pivotal  point  of  all  their  policy,  was  utterly  incompati- 
ble with  sympathy  for  sedition  of  any  kind,  especially  for  that  which 
had  prevailed  in  the  two  Canadas.     And,  it  soon  became  evident  from 


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3IO  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

responsibility  which  it  was  his  duty  to  bear  and  of  directing  the  wrath 
of  whichever  party  lost,  in  the  reference,  against  the  Crown.  To  dis- 
solve Parliament  was  to  precipitate  an  issue  at  the  polls  which,  in  the 
inflamed  state  of  public  opinion,  could  hardly  be  settled  by  a  mere  vote 
and,  if  it  were  so  disposed  of  without  actual  violence  would  in  all  pro- 
bability only  prolong  the  trouble  without  changing  the  result.  He 
determined,  therefore,  with  a  patriotism  which  deserves  the  apprecia- 
tion of  every  Canadian  in  more  sober  days,  to  assume  the  full  respon- 
sibility of  action  and  of  his  assent  to  the  Bill.  '*  Whatever  mischief 
ensues,"  he  wrote  to  the  Colonial  Secretary,  "  may  probably  be 
repaired,  if  the  worst  comes  to  the  worst,  by  the  sacrifice  of  me." 

On  the  25th  of  April,  Lord  Elgin  drove  to  the  Parliament  House 
in  Montreal  and  publicly  assented  to  the  measure  in  the  Queen's 
name.  The  news  flew  like  wildfire  through  the  city  and  the  onCe 
popular  Governor  drove  away  from  the  House  amidst  a  storm  of 
insults  and  showers  of  missiles.  A  few  hours  passed,  the  excitement 
increased,  the  mob  became  larger  and  larger  and  finally  uncontrollable. 
There  were  well-dressed  men  in  its  ranks  and  many  known  to  be 
Tories  amongst  its  leaders.  No  doubt  also  there  was  a  large  riff-raff 
element  common  to  such  occasions  and,  probably  many  French  and 
Irish  of  the  lower  classes  who  cared  nothing  about  the  issue  and  only 
loved  a  riot.  However,  the  mob  invaded  the  Parliament  Buildings 
and,  finally,  in  a  moment  of  impulse,  set  them  on  fire.  The  damage 
done  was  irreparable.  Not  only  were  the  buildings  destroyed,  but 
all  the  public  records  of  Upper  and  Lower  Canada  before  the  Union 
were  burned.  Not  only  was  the  reputation  of  Montreal  affected  but 
its  position  as  the  seat  of  Government  was  rendered  a  future  impos- 
sibility. Not  only  was  the  Tory  party  disgraced  by  its  participation 
in  the  riot  but  it  soon  became  entirely  responsible  for  it  in  the  public 
mind  and  suffered  corresponding  injury.  The  seal  was  really  set  to 
the  chances  of  Tory  success  against  Lord  Elgin,  at  this  juncture,  by 


POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS  311 

the  burning  of  the  Buildings  and  by  the  further  riot  which  followed 
the  Governor-General's  visit  to  the  city  a  few  day's  later. 

Protests,  meanwhile,  poured  into  the  Colonial  Ofifice  at  Lon- 
don against  the  Lord  Elgin's  action  in  accepting  the  Bill ;  though  still 
more  numerous  were  the  addresses  showered  upon  him,  personally, 
from  every  part  of  the  country  and  expressing  admiration  for  his 
magnanimity  toward  the  rioters  and  his  determination  to  uphold  at 
all  cost  the  principles  of  responsible  government.  He  was  ultimately 
maintained  in  his  position  and  his  policy  approved  by  the  Colonial 
Office.  Parliament  met  no  more  at  Montreal.  During  the  next 
decade  it  sat  alternately  at  Toronto  and  Quebec — until  Bytown  had 
been  changed  from  a  little  lumbering  village  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ottawa,  by  the  magic  of  the  Queen's  choice,  into  the  capital  of  her 
Canadian  Province.  In  i860,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  during  his  visit 
to  Canada,  laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  Parliament  Buildings  which 
were  to  do  honour  to  the  future  Dominion  and  to  mark  the  evolution 
of  a  village  into  the  City  of  Ottawa. 

The  year  1849  saw  more  than  the  riots  at  Montreal.  Over  Can- 
ada hung  the  clouds  of  intense  commercial  depression.  To  the 
Tories  it  seemed  as  if  Great  Britain  had  thrown  them  to  the  wolves 
of  want  by  her  sudden  free-trade  arrangements  while  at  the  same 
time  she  had  sacrificed  their  loyalty  upon  a  shrine  of  rebellion 
through  the  action  of  Lord  Elgin.  The  result  of  their  dissatisfac- 
tion, and  of  the  still  seething  discontent  among  French-Canadians, 
was  the  birth  of  an  Annexation  movement ;  the  holding  of  a  mass- 
meeting  in  Montreal  to  further  that  end  ;  the  issue  of  a  Manifesto 
which  is  of  great  historic  interest  because  of  its  rash  signature  by 
such  men  of  the  future  as  Sir  A.  A.  Dorion,  Sir  A.  T.  Gait,  Sir  D. 
L.  Macpherson,  Sir  John  Abbott,  and  the  leading  financial  magnates 
of  the  city.  It  was  a  mere  flash  in  the  pan,  but  it  none  the  less 
marked   the    miserable   condition    of    the  country  at  this  period  of 


312  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

commercial  disaster  and  political  riot.  More  important,  because  more 
lasting  in  its  effects,  was  the  formation  of  the  British-American 
League,  with  a  platform  of  federal  union  amongst  the  Provinces  and 
of  protection  in  tariff  matters.  It  was  largely  the  product  of  John 
A.  Macdonald's  skillful  hand  and  of  his  leadership  of  a  number  of 
young  men  who  were  growing  in  personal  ambition  and  in  public 
attention.  From  this  time  until  its  final  fruition  the  idea  of  federa- 
tion never  disappeared  entirely  from  the  field  of  Canadian  politics 
although  its  progress  was  often  hampered  and  its  position  for  years 
was  more  visionary  than  practical  in  appearance. 

THE    PERIOD    OF    RAILWAY    DEVELOPMENT 

Meanwhile  the  period  of  railway  development  was  looming  upon 
the  horizon.  The  fertile  brain  of  Lord  Durham  had  suggested  an 
inter-colonial  railway  to  unite  the  Canadas  with  the  Maritime  Prov- 
inces; and  the  ready  mind  of  Joseph  Howe  had  early  seen  its 
desirability.  Effort  after  effort  was  made  between  1850  and  the  time 
of  Confederation  to  get  this  line  built.  Lord  Elgin  did  what  he  could 
to  support  the  idea.  Howe,  in  Nova  Scotia,  Edward  Barron  Chand- 
ler, in  New  Brunswick,  and  Francis  Hincks,  in  Canada,  did  their  best 
to  further  it.  Negotiations  were  entered  into  with  the  Colonial  Office, 
Howe  went  to  England  and  stormed  the  ramparts  of  officialdom, 
meetings  were  held  at  Toronto  and  elsewhere  of  inter-Provincial 
delegates,  but  the  project  ultimately  fell  through.  Upon  its  ruins 
came  the  European  and  North  American  Line  in  New  Brunswick 
and  the  Grand  Trunk  in  Canada  ;  and  not  till  after  Confederation 
was  the  original  plan  taken  up  and  carried  to  completion. 

The  history  of  the  Grand  Trunk  is  an  extraordinary  one.  It 
was  the  product  of  a  railway  era,  the  record  of  which  is  marked  by 
all  the  evils  of  rash  investment,  wild  extravagance,  huge  profits,  great 
losses  and  frequent  ruin.  Lesser  lines  sprang  up  like  mushrooms  in 
every  direction  ;  the  Legislature  gave  grants  to  all  kinds  of  projectors 


POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS  313 

and  projects  ;  the  Municipal  Loan  Fund  was  created  and  local  bodies 
empowered  to  help  railways — which  they  did  to  the  tune  of  millions. 
In  1852  the  Grand  Trunk  Line,  connecting  the  waters  of  Lake 
Huron  with  those  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  was  commenced  and,  in  i860, 
the  costly  Victoria  Bridge,  in  practical  completion  of  its  Canadian 
system,  was  opened  by  the  Prince  of  Wales.  The  promoters  of  the 
railway  included  many  members  of  the  Government — John  Ross, 
Francis  Hincks,  E.  P.  Tache,  James  Morris,  Malcolm  Cameron  and 
R.  E.  Caron — the  President  of  the  Bank  of  Montreal  and  others, 
and  the  bonds  were  floated  in  England  without  much  difficulty.  Mr. 
Hincks  was  the  leader  in  the  movement  and  in  the  varied  financial 
difficulties  which  followed  he  holds  a  prominent  place. 

The  evils  of  the  situation  which  developed  out  of  this  and  simi- 
lar enterprises  are  well  known  and  reflected  seriously  for  many  years 
upon  the  credit  of  the  Dominion.  Confident  in  the  appearance  of  so 
many  representative  Canadians  in  the  Grand  Trunk  Prospectus  money 
was  freely  invested  by  the  English  people  under  the  impression  that 
it  was  more  or  less  a  Government  project.  The  arrangement  by 
which  the  great  firm  of  Peto,  Brassey  and  Betts  undertook  its  con- 
struction did  not  destroy  an  impression  which  seems  to  have  been 
based  upon  nothing  more  than  the  appearance  of  certain  names  upon 
the  Directorate  and  to  have  survived  the  repeated  refusals  of  the 
Canadian  Government  to  identify  themselves  with  its  later  complica- 
tions. Twenty  years  after  this  period,  however,  the  London  Times 
(April  15,  1875)  declared  that  ^^30,000,000  had  been  spent  upon  the 
Grand  Trunk.  Of  this  five-sixths  was  English  money  and  only 
^10,000,000  of  it  was  yielding  any  return.  Eight  million  pounds  ster- 
ling had  gone  into  the  Great  Westen  and  only  ^3,000,000  of  that 
amount  was  paying  any  interest ;  while  the  Canada  Southern,  the  Mid- 
land, the  Prescott  and  Ottawa,  and  other  lines  since  amalgamated 
with  the  Grand   Trunk   and  built  mainly  with    British  capital,  were 


314  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

mere  financial  wreckage.  The  whole  episode  is,  in  fact,  an  unpleas- 
ant one.  It  hurt  Canadian  credit  for  many  long  years  and  the 
free  expenditure  of  money  at  the  time  produced  a  political  corruption 
which  was  even  more  injurious. 

Yet  the  promoters  do  not  deserve  blame.  Mr.  Hincks  and  his 
associates  did  their  best  to  develop  the  country  by  the  creation  of 
necessary  lines  of  communication  and  their  policy  undoubtedly  had  a 
great  influence  for  good  in  that  connection.  That  the  contractors  did 
not  understand  the  conditions  of  construction  in  a  new  region  ;  that 
the  railway  managers  were  extravagant  in  expenses  and  salaries  ;  that 
political  influences  caused  the  building  of  competitive  lines  where 
there  was  no  room  for  them ;  that  the  waterways  of  Canada  proved 
great  rivals  to  the  new  railways ;  were  all  matters  hardly  under 
the  control  of  the  politicians  who  pioneered  the  railway  system  of 
Canada. 

TWO    GREAT     QUESTIONS     SETTLED 

Meanwile,  two  great  political  questions  had  been  settled — the 
Clergy  Reserves  in  Upper  Canada  and  the  Seigneurial  Tenure  in  the 
Lower  Province.  The  settlement  could  not  come  while  the  Ministry 
of  Lafontaine  and  Baldwin  remained  in  power.  Mr.  Lafontaine, 
though  a  Liberal  in  politics  and  at  one  time  a  rebel  sympathizer,  had 
grown  more  moderate  in  his  views  as  he  grew  older  and  more  willing 
to  see  the  best  in  everything  rather  than  the  worst.  His  reputation 
for  pronounced  common  sense  and  for  personal  honour  and  integrity, 
as  well  as  a  knowledge  of  his  respect  for  vested  rights,  had  yearly 
grown  stronger  as  the  storms  of  1849  passed  from  public  memory. 
He  favoured  the  retention  of  Seigneurial  privileges  in  Lower  Canada 
for  reasons  which  it  is  not  difficult  to  estimate  and  amongst  which 
the  desire  to  maintain  the  beneficial  influence  of  the  French  Cana- 
dian gentry  over  a  more  or  less  ignorant  peasantry  was  not  the  least. 
He  had  no  sympathy  with  demagogues  and  he  had  proved  his  faith 


POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS  315 

in  the  people  upon  important  issues  and  his  belief  in  moderate  Liber- 
alism by  the  general  policy  of  his  Government.  But  he  thought  it 
was  now  time  to  rest  for  awhile. 

Mr.  Baldwin's  position  was  one  of  sympathy  with  the  view  of 
those  who  disapproved  of  the  Reserves ;  but  he  did  not  go  to  the 
extreme  of  the  agitators  who  could  see  nothing  except  that  question 
upon  the  horizon  and  nothing  tb  do  in  Canada  until  it  was  disposed 
of  to  their  liking.  He  was  inclined  to  let  the  matter  drift  and  to  join 
his  colleagues  in  legislation  along  other  and  practical  lines.  The 
Government  had  done  a  great  deal  for  the  Province  during  these 
years  in  useful  work  and  actual  achievement.  They  thoroughly 
reformed  the  Municipal  system,  which  had  been  in  a  most  chaotic 
condition  ;  passed  new  laws  regarding  elections,  education  and  assess- 
ments ;  established  Provincial  credit  abroad ;  obtained  complete  con- 
trol from  the  Imperial  Government  over  the  Provincial  Post  Office 
and  established  cheap  and  uniform  rates  of  postage  ;  reformed  and 
remodelled  the  Courts  of  Justice  in  both  sections  of  the  Province  ; 
amended  the  exclusive  and  ecclesiastical  charter  of  King's  College 
and  organized  the  University  of  Toronto  in  its  place  upon  a  non- 
sectarian  basis  ;  abolished  the  principle  of  primogeniture  in  Upper 
Canada  as  applied  to  real  estate  ;  and  inaugurated  much  important 
railway  legislation.  This  is  a  splendid  record  of  work  for  three  years 
of  power.  Then,  in  October  1851,  came  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Lafon- 
taine,  speedily  followed  by  that  of  Mr.  Baldwin.  The  former  became 
Chief  Justice  of  Lower  Canada  and  was  created  a  baronet  in  1854; 
the  latter  retired  into  private  life,  refused  a  seat  on  the  Bench  and 
eventually  accepted  the  honour  of  a  C.  B.  from  the  Crown. 

The  Liberal  Ministry  was  re-organized  under  Mr.  A.  N.  Morin 
from  Canada  East  and  Mr.  Francis  Hincks  from  the  West.  The 
latter  was  one  of  the  shrewdest  men  who  have  participated  in  the 
public  life  of  Canada  and  naturally  dominated  the  new  Government 


3i6  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

in  person  and  policy,  although  his  chief  colleague  did  not  lack  ability 
and  certainly  possessed  wide  popularity  in  Lower  Canada.  During 
the  three  following  years  the  railway  questions  were  more  prominent 
than  any  other,  although  from  time  to  time  the  Seigneurial  Tenure 
and  Clergy  Reserve  problems  forced  themselves  upon  political  atten- 
tion. The  two  latter  were  now,  however,  to  be  disposed  of  through 
the  personal  influence  and  policy  of  Mr.  John  A.  Macdonald.  His 
rise  during  preceding  years  had  been  slow  and  steady.  He  had  not 
pressed  any  burning  question  upon  the  Province  or  identified  himself 
with  any  racial  or  religious  issue  ;  but  had  quietly  grown  into  the  con- 
fidence of  his  party  chiefs  and  into  the  practical  leadership  of  his  party. 
Tact  and  conciliation  were  the  principal  qualities  marking  this  pro- 
gress. He  seems  to  have  seen  clearly  that  the  Toryism  of  Robinson, 
Draper  and  McNab  was  not  suited  to  the  new  conditions  of  the  time  ; 
that  no  successful  party  could  be  built  upon  such  racial  issues  as  the 
Rebellion  Losses  Bill,  or  upon  such  historical  incidents  as  the  Rebel- 
lion itself  ;  that  Sir  Allan  McNab,  brave  old  political  warrior  and 
chivalrous  character  as  he  was,  could  not  possibly  adapt  himself  to  the 
new  era  of  responsible  and  popular  government ;  that  the  Tory  party, 
if  it  were  to  live,  must  cease  to  be  an  organized  negation  and  must 
assimilate  outside  elements  whilst  developing  a  creative  policy  of 
moderate  reform. 

He  was  greatly  helped  in  this  effort  to  evolve  a  new  party  by 
the  policy  of  his  vigorous  and  able  opponent — Mr.  George  Brown. 
The  latter  is  perhaps  the  most  forcible  and  strenuous  character  in 
Canadian  annals.  Conscientious  and  sincere  in  the  extreme,  he  was 
at  the  same  time  lacking  in  tact  and  in  a  wide  view  of  public  ques- 
tions. Profound  convictions,  whilst  always  commanding  respect,  are 
sometimes  apt  to  verge  upon  intolerance  ;  and  it  was  this  imperious 
manner  and  dominating  will  which  were  at  once  the  strong  and  the 
weak   points    in    George    Brown's    great   personality.      As   a   virile 


3i8  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

Like  all  Mr.  Macdonald's  coalitions,  it  was  really  an  assimilation  of 
lesser  men  into  his  own  party  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  his  own 
views.  The  first  indication  of  the  change  in  party  conditions  was 
the  secularization  of  the  Clergy  Reserves.  The  question  had  gone 
through  various  phases  since  Sir  John  Colborne  had  stirred  up  such 
bitter  Radical  dissatisfaction  by  his  endowment  of  forty-four  Rector- 
ies in  Upper  Canada  in  1836.  By  an  Imperial  Act  passed  in  1840, 
the  new  Government  of  the  United  Province  was  given  power  to  deal 
with  the  proceeds  of  the  sales  which  had  already  taken  place,  of  land 
belonging  to  the  Reserves,  and  to  hand  over  two-thirds  of  the  money 
to  the  Church  of  England  and  the  other  third  to  the  Church  of  Scot- 
land in  Canada.  The  unappropriated  lands,  amounting  to  1,800,000 
acres,  were  also  to  be  sold  and,  of  the  proceeds,  one-half  was  given  to 
the  Churches  of  England  and  Scotland  in  the  above  proportions  and 
the  remaining  half  devoted  to  purposes  of  general  public  worship  and 
religious  education.  This  compromise  had  been  welcomed  at  the 
time  and  Lord  Sydenham,  whose  child  it  really  was,  had  congratulated 
himself  upon  the  settlement  of  a  question  which  had  greatly  compli- 
cated the  troubles  of  the  time. 

But  the  problem  would  not  down  so  long  as  there  was  an  agitator 
in  the  Province  who  could  make  political  capital  out  of  a^semi-religious 
issue,  or  out  of  the  restless  spirit  of  a  democratic  population  which 
could  not  endure  the  expenditure  of  public  moneys  for  any  religious 
purpose  whatever.  For  eight  years  following  the  revival  of  the  ques- 
tion, in  1846,  it  took  the  form  of  an  agitation  for  complete  seculariza- 
tion and  contributed  to  the  downfall  of  Governments,  the  sub-division 
of  parties,  the  intensifying  of  public  strife.  Finally,  on  May  9,  1853, 
the  Imperial  Parliament  passed  an  Act  transferring  the  control  of  the 
matter  to  the  Provincial  Legislature  and,  on  the  17th  of  October, 
1854,  Mr.  Macdonald  moved  a  measure  of  general  secularization. 
The  Rectories  already  established  were  not  to  be  interfered  with  and 


POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS  319 

certain  provisions  were  made  for  the  widows  and  orphans  of  the 
clergy.  The  balance  of  the  Reserves,  as  they  should  be  sold,  were 
to  be  divided  amongst  the  townships  in  which  they  were  situated  upon 
a  population  basis  and  for  purposes  of  education  and  local  improve- 
ment. 

At  the  same"  time  that  this  measure  was  passing  through  the 
Assembly  a  Bill  had  been  introduced  by  Mr.  L.  T.  Drummond 
abolishing  the  Seigneurial  Tenure  in  Lower  Canada.  No  man  in  the 
Legislature  was  so  well-fitted  to  deal  with  this  important  matter  as 
the  Attorney-General  East.  He  was  a  politician  who  occupies  a 
large  and  yet  obscured  place  in  Canadian  history.  His  abilities  were 
very  great,  his  popularity  in  Lower  Canada  amongst  both  French  and 
English  most  pronounced  and  in  those  days  unusual,  whilst  his  elo- 
quence was  much  more  effective  than  that  of  many  who  occupy 
more  prominent  places  in  the  popular  mind.  He  had  been  eminent 
at  the  Bar  and  he  lived  to  be  eminent  on  the  Bench.  His  speech 
upon  the  proposed  abolition  of  an  old-time  system  which,  without 
being  as  useless  or  as  injurious  as  its  critics  maintained,  had  yet  fully 
outlived  its  value,  was  worthy  of  the  occasion.  The  measure,  which 
passed  both  Houses  by  good  majorities,  provided  for  the  clearing 
away  of  all  feudal  privileges,  rights  and  dues  in  Lower  Canada,  for 
freedom  of  contract  in  land  and  labour  to  Seigneur  and  cencitaire  (or 
peasant),  and  for  compensation  to  the  former  in  the  case  of  all  vested 
rights  acquired  by  custom  and  the  lapse  of  time. 

I  A  tribunal  was  appointed  to  settle  questions  which   might  arise 

out  of  the  legislation  and  to  distribute  a  Seigneurial  indemnity  which 
ultimately  amounted  to  ;^65o,ooo.  This  was  the  end  of  two  ques- 
tions which  had  destroyed  the  peace  of  politicians  and  the  harmony  of 
parties  and  increased  the  bitterness  of  controversies,  already  violent 
enough,  during  many  years.  The  end  was  bound  to  come  and  the 
willingness  of  John  A.  Macdonald  to  meet  the  inevitable  is  creditable 


320  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

to  his  sagacity  and  hardly  a  reflection  upon  his  consistency.  He 
never  affected  to  be  a  Tory  of  the  Sherwood  or  Strachan  type  and 
could  certainly  have  never  achieved  the  great  results  of  his  career 
had  he  been  so.  They  filled  their  inch  in  public  life  and  national 
history ;  he  lived  in  different  times  and  adapted  himself  to  the  new 
conditions — as  Disraeli  was  then  beginning  to  do  in  England  with 
the  Tory  party  of  his  early  days. 

POLITICAL    AND    PERSONAL    CHANGES 

The  next  few  years  were  chiefly  marked  by  the  personal  strug- 
gle for  supremacy  between  Macdonald  and  Brown,  with  an  ever- 
increasing  accession  of  strength  to  the  former  ;  and  by  complications 
rising  out  of  the  racial  and  religious  rivalries  of  the  time.  The 
McNab-Morin  Government,  which  was  formed  in  1854  upon  the  ruins 
of  the  Hincks-Morin  administration,  lasted  for  two  years  and  was  then 
re-organized  for  a  year  into  the  Tache-Macdonald  Ministry.  From 
1855  Mr.  George  E.  Cartier  was  a  member  of  the  Government.  He 
had  been  steadily  coming  to  the  front  in  Lower  Canada  and  had 
joined  Mr.  Macdonald  in  an  alliance  which  was  destined  to  last  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century  and  to  contribute  greatly  to  the  success  of  the 
Conservative  leader's  plans.  Like  Lafontaine  he  had  been  a  rebel 
sympathizer  in  his  youth  and,  like  him,  also,  had  mellowed  into  a 
moderate  Conservative  with  strong  British  leanings.  The  only  differ- 
ence was  that  the  one  refused  to  change  his  designation  of  Liberal, 
the  other  publicly  accepted  the  new  principles  which  the  name  of 
Conservative  carried  with  it.  Persevering  and  energetic  in  character, 
exhaustive  and  convincing,  though  not  eloquent  in  speech  ;  with  the 
qualities  of  a  statesman  rather  than  a  mere  politician  ;  Sir  George 
Cartier  became  in  time  the  chosen  and  powerful  leader  of  his  race. 

Personal  changes  in  the  decade  between  1854  and  1864  form  the 
chief  incidents  of  its  political  history.  Sir  Allan  McNab  retired  in  1 856 
from  a  party   leadership  which    ill-health    and   new   conditions  had 


POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS  321 

rendered  impossible  ;  the  Hon.  L.  T.  Drummond  disappeared  from 
public  life  as  a  result  of  coming  into  conflict  with  Mr.  Macdonald's 
ambitions  ;  John  Sandfield  Macdonald  rose  into  prominence  as  a  some- 
what erratic  Liberal  leader  in  the  Upper  part  of  the  Province  and 
Antoine  Aime  Dorion  replaced  Lafontaine  in  the  French  leadership 
of  the  same  party.  The  Governor-General,  who  had  so  greatly 
endeared  himself  to  all  classes  erf  the  Canadian  people — Lord  Elgin 
— retired  in  1854  and,  after  rendering  substantial  service  to  his  coun- 
try, died  while  ruling  the  great  Empire  of  India  for  the  Queen.  His 
successor,  for  seven  years,  was  Sir  Edmund  Walker  Head  and  he,  in 

1 86 1,  was  replaced  by  Lord  Monck.  They  were  both  careful  and 
wise  administrators  who  did  much  to  smooth  the  still  rugged  edges 
of  the  new  governmental  system^ 

In  1857,  upon  the  local  and  party  issue  which  had  been  made 
out  of  the  Queen's  choice  of  Ottawa  as  the  Provincial  capital,  the 
Government  of  Colonel  Tache  and  John  A.  Macdonald  was  defeated 
and  the  Liberals,  under  George  Brown  and  A.  A.  Dorion,  had  the 
pleasure  of  holding  office  for  two  days.  Then  followed  George  E. 
Cartier  and  John  A.  Macdonald  in  a  Conservative  Ministry  which 
lasted  amid  varied  shifts  in  policy  and  changes  in   personnel  until 

1862,  when  the  Liberals  came  in  again  under  J.  Sandfield  Macdonald 
and  L.  V.  Sicotte — for  a  couple  of  years,  and  with  various  changes 
under  one  of  which  A.  A.  Dorion  succeeded  Sicotte  as  the  French 
Canadian  leader  in  the  Cabinet.  Sir  E.  P.  Tache  and  John  A. 
Macdonald  came  into  office  in  March  1864  and,  in  1865,  the  former 
was  succeeded  as  nominal  Premier  by  Sir  N.  F.  Belleau. 

Meanwhile,  in  November  1864,  George  Brown  had  coalesced 
with  the  Conservative  Government  in  an  attempt  to  remedy  the 
constitutional  deadlock  which  was  threatening  the  Province  and  to 
bring  about  a  radical  cure  for  this  evil  and  a  brighter  future  for  the 
country  by  the  uniting  of  all  the  Provinces  of  British  America  in  a 
18 


322  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

Federal  bond.  With  him  were  Liberals  such  as  Oliver  Mowat, 
William  McDougall  and  W.  P.  Rowland.  It  had  gradually  become 
impossible  to  govern  the  Province  under  existing  circumstances. 
There  seemed  to  be  no  common  bond  of  union  amongst  public  men  ; 
no  common  principle  of  action  in  the  so-called  parties.  George 
Brown,  with  his  Protestant  and  anti-French  section,  had  hopelessly 
divided  the  Liberal  party  in  Lower  Canada ;  while  John  Hillyard 
Cameron  and  the  Orangemen  formed  a  very  uncertain  portion  of  the 
Conservative  party  in  Upper  Canada.  John  A.  Macdonald  was  an 
adept  at  winning  the  allegiance  of  his  opponents  and  in  making  coa- 
litions which  brought  him  temporary  strength  from  time  to  time ; 
but  it  was  not  always  easy  to  hold  these  recruits  and  new  issues  were 
apt  to  divert  their  loyalty  at  critical  moments.  The  Baldwin  Reform- 
ers, or  moderate  Liberals  of  the  old  school,  did  not  always  stand  by 
Macdonald,  while  the  Roman  Catholic  vote  in  Upper  Canada  was 
always  uncertain  and  was  controlled  at  times  by  John  Sandfield  Mac- 
donald— himself  a  Scotch  Catholic  and  powerful  with  the  old-time 
Loyalist  Highlanders.  In  the  Lower  part  of  the  Province,  there  was 
the  greatest  uncertainty  and  neither  Morin,  nor  Dorion,  nor  Cartier 
was  strong  enough  to  dominate  the  situation — although  Cartier  did 
ultimately  do  so  in  time  to  carry  his  Province  into  Confederation. 

Some  useful  legislation — and  some  that  was  purely  experimental 
— was  effected  even  amidst  this  confusion.  The  volunteer  force  was 
organized  for  home  defence  in  1855  as  a  result  of  the  feeling  aroused 
by  the  Crimean  War  and  ultimately,  after  a  Government  had  been 
beaten  upon  details,  a  fairly  good  working  system  was  evolved.  In 
1858  a  limited  policy  of  protection  was  established.  In  1848,  the 
clause  in  the  Act  of  Union  prohibiting  the  Legislature  from  using  the 
French  language  was  repealed. 

In  the  Maritime  Provinces  matters  had  progressed  much  more 
sedately  and  satisfactorily.     The  constitutional  storms  were  largely 


POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS  343 

over  and  the  people  had  very  sensibly  devoted  themselves  to  more 
material  things.  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Sir  Arthur  Hamilton  Gordon, 
Hon.  J.  H.  T.  Manners-Sutton,  in  New  Brunswick,  and  Sir  John  Har- 
vey, Sir  J.  G.  Le  Marchant,  Lord  Mulgrave  (afterwards  Marquess  of 
Normanby),  Sir  R.  G.  Macdonell  and  Sir  W.  F.  Williams,  in  Nova 
Scotia,  proved  themselves,  upon  the  whole,  to  be  very  capable  adminis- 
trators. Questions  of  railway  construction  were  prominent  in  both 
Provinces  for  years  and  politics,  never  very  violent  in  New  Brunswick, 
were  also  comparatively  quiet  in  the  sister  Province.  Prohibition  was 
a  New  Brunswick  issue  in  the  fifties,  whilst  the  improvement  of  edu- 
cation was  always  a  vital  matter.  The  former  principle  first  brought 
Samuel  Leonard  Tilley  to  the  front  as  a  Liberal  leader  and  helped  to 
make  him  Premier  in  1861-65.  Albert  J.  Smith,  John  M.  Johnston, 
Peter  Mitchell  and  R.  D.  Wilmot  were  other  political  leaders  of  the 
decade  before  Confederation.  In  Nova  Scotia,  Joseph  Howe  and 
William  Young  remained  the  chiefs  of  Liberalism  with  Adams  G. 
Archibald  as  a  later  colleague  ;  while  the  Conservative  party  was  con- 
trolled by  the  veteran,  James  W.  Johnston  and  his  successor,  Charles 
Tupper. 

RISE    OF    SIR   CHARLES   TUPPER 

The  rise  of  Dr.  Tupper  is  perhaps  the  most  important  political 
event  in  the  Provincial  history  of  this  period.  To  fearlessly  face 
Joseph  Howe  upon  the  public  platform  and  to  defeat  him  in  a  Nova 
Scotian  constituency,  as  Tupper  did  in  the  early  fifties,  was  a  most 
picturesque  and  striking  event.  But  when  it  was  followed  up  by  the 
development  of  a  strong  personality  which  knew  neither  defeat,  nor 
fatigue,  nor  rebuff,  but  swept  through  the  Province  like  a  whirlwind  at 
every  election — sometimes  winning,  sometimes  losing,  but  always 
strong  and  resourceful — it  was  also  a  most  important  one.  Dr.  Tup- 
per became  Premier  in  1864  after  serving  four  years  in  preceding 
Cabinets.    His  chief  act  of  Provincial  legislation  was  the  re-organization 


324  POLITICAL  REFORMS  AND  GENERAL  PROGRESS 

of  the  school  system  upon  the  basis  of  free  attendance  and  his  most 
memorable  public  action  during  this  period  was  his  policy  of  join- 
ing in  the  Charlottetown  Conference  for  the  Union  of  the  Maritime 
Provinces. 

Prince  Edward  Island  had,  meantime,  developed  a  serious  agita- 
tion regarding  the  locking  up  of  its  lands  in  the  possession  of  British 
absentee  capitalists.  Keen  discussion  with  the  Home  Government 
had  taken  place,  a  responsible  system  of  administration  had  slowly 
evolved  for  its  tiny  population  and  with  it,  in  i860,  had  come  the 
appointment  of  an  Imperial  Commission  to  settle  the  question.  One 
of  the  Commissioners  represented  the  Imperial  authorities,  one  the 
tenants  and  one  was  Mr.  Joseph  Howe,  An  adjustment  of  difficul- 
ties was  made  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Islanders  but  it  was  not  accept- 
able to  the  London  authorities  and  the  matter  was  not  really  settled 
until  the  Island  entered  the  Confederation  in  1873.  One  useful  thing 
was  arranged,  however,  in  the  purchase  by  the  Province  of  Lord  Sel- 
kirk's estate  of  62,000  acres  which  was  generously  given  up  by  the 
heirs  for  some  ;^6,ooo  sterling.  But  the  verge  of  a  new  and  greater 
political  development  had  now  been  reached — hastened,  fortunately 
for  the  whole  country,  by  external  incidents  of  war  and  fiscal  change. 


^^^^■^^^^ 

^^&i  d^^^ 

^   ^HW' 

THE  HON.  SIR  ALEXANDER  T.  GALT 
G.C.M.G.,  C.B. 


THB  HON.  SIR  FRANCIS  HINCKS.  K.C.M.G. 


THE  RIGHT  HON.  SIR  JOHN  ROSE 
BART.,  P.C,  G.C.M.G. 

Finance  Minister  of  Canada,  1867-69 


THE  HON.  SIR  ETIENNE  P.  TACHE 
Premier  of  the  Canadas  before  Confederation 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Reciprocity  and  the  United   States  Civil  War 

THE  question  of  reciprocity  in  trade,  or  tariffs,  with  the  United 
States  has  been  an  important  one  to  the  Canadian  Provinces 
in  all  the  later  stages  of  their  history.  It  was  discussed,  even 
during  the  days  of  the  navigation  laws  and  the  British  preferential 
tariff,  at  such  periods  as  the  fluctuating  tendencies  of  trade  showed 
some  possible  advantage  in  obtaining  freer  admission  to  the  Ameri- 
can market  or  in  the  removal  of  the  embargo  upon  American 
ships  for  the  transport  of  products.  But  upon  the  whole  the  fiscal 
preference  in  the  British  market  was  sufficient  to  hold  the  interests 
of  the  Provinces  largely  in  line  with  those  of  England.  After  the 
abolition  of  the  Corn-Laws,  however,  with  its  opening  of  Canadian 
ports  to  foreign  vessels  and  the  sudden  destruction  of  industry  and  credit 
by  the  repeal  of  the  preferential  duties,  the  British  Provinces  began 
to  look  around  for  other  markets  and  to  cultivate  possibilities  in  the 
Republic. 

THE    PUBLIC    MIND    TURNS    TO    THE    STATES 

They  arranged  their  tariffs  so  as  to  treat  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States  upon  a  basis  of  fiscal  equality  and,  though  not  yet 
decidedly  protective  in  policy,  began  to  indicate  tendencies  in  that 
direction.  From  1849,  through  immediately  following  years,  the 
great  desire  of  the  people  in  the  Canadas  was  for  some  arrangement 
with  the  States  by  which  their  farm  products  could  obtain  free  entry 
to  its  market ;  while  in  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  pressing  demand 
of  the  moment  was  for  free  fish  in  the  same  direction.  Everywhere, 
also,  there  was  a  feeling  of  indignation,  or  regret,  at  the  way  in 

327 


328  RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR 

which  Great  Britain  had  apparently  disregarded  their  interests  in  her 
sudden  adoption  of  a  cosmopolitan  trade  principle  and  the  bold 
initiation  of  a  free  import  policy. 

Naturally,  perhaps,  people  had  turned  to  the  United  States  in 
the  financial  and  commercial  distress  which  followed  the  unfortu- 
nately hasty  action  of  the  Mother-country  ;  and  in  the  subsequent 
accession  to  office  of  Lord  Elgin  they  found  a  man  peculiarly  suited 
to  the  exigencies  of  the  moment.  In  this,  as  in  every  other  important 
matter  he  encountered,  that  brilliant  nobleman  seems  to  have  risen 
to  the  occasion.  In  1854,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Francis  Hincks  and 
other  delegates  from  Canada  and  the  Maritime  Provinces,  the  Gov- 
ernor-General proceeded,  in  some  state  and  under  instructions  from  the 
British  Government,  to  negotiate,  if  possible,  a  treaty  of  reciprocity, 

DIFFICULTIES    IN    THE    WAY 

It  was  a  difficult  thing  to  do.  There  was  no  love  lost  be- 
tween the  American  Republic  and  its  Mother-land  at  this  time, 
though  much  the  greater  part  of  the  hostility  was  felt  by  the  former. 
The  Oregon  question,  eight  years  before,  had  nearly  resulted  in  con- 
flict, and  the  war-cry  of  "  Fifty-four,  Forty,  or  Fight " — in  reference 
to  the  latitude  of  the  disputed  boundary — had  rung  through  the 
United  States  and  been  received  with  intense  enthusiasm.  The  San 
Juan  dispute  had  just  commenced  and  was  also  to  see  many  threats 
of  war  before  its  final  settlement. 

But  Lord  Elgin  came  to  Washington  and  carried  everything 
before  him.  The  result  may  have  been  partly  due  to  American 
indifference  regarding  the  Provinces  in  one  direction  and  to  the 
belief,  in  another,  that  reciprocity  would  hasten  the  inevitable  day  of 
annexation ;  but  it  was  mainly  due  to  Lord  Elgin's  personality  and 
diplomacy.  No  doubt  he  played  upon  all  the  various  feelings  regard- 
ing the  British  Provinces,  whether  acquisitive,  indifferent,  or  igno- 
rant.    No  doubt,  also,  that  nothing  in  the  way  of  personal  hospitality 


RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR  329 

and  the  cultivation  of  friendships  in  securing  the  individual  support 
of  Senators  was  spared.  Indeed  it  has  been  said  more  than  once  in 
Washington,  and  repeated  elsewhere,  that  the  famous  Treaty  was 
floated  through  the  Senate  upon  a  sea  of  champagne.  Whatever 
the  causes,  however,  the  astute  Governor-General  won  the  day,  the 
measure  passed  the  ordeal  of  Congress,  and  became  law  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  same  year.  This'  i-emarkable  piece  of  diplomatic  work 
was  of  much  apparent  service  to  the  Provinces.  It  provided  for  a 
free  exchange  of  the  products  of  the  sea,  the  farm,  the  forest  and  the 
mine,  and  thus  benefited  Canadian  farmers,  lumbermen  and  miners. 
It  admitted  the  United  States  to  the  freedom  of  the  rich  Atlantic 
fisheries  and  to  the  benefits  of  Canadian  canal  and  river  navigation. 
But  it  was  unfortunately  found  impossible  to  obtain  the  admission  of 
Maritime  Province  ships  to  the  American  coasting  trade.  Eventu- 
ally, also,  trouble  grew  up  as  to  the  privileges  which  might  be  claimed 
for  American  manufactured  goods  under  the  general  understanding, 
though  not  technical  conditions,  of  the  arrangement.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Americans  soon  diverted  much  of  the  transportation  inter- 
ests of  the  Provinces  to  their  own  channels  of  trade. 

The  details  of  the  development  in  the  Canadas  which  followed 
the  acceptance  of  this  Treaty  are  of  great  importance  to  a  clear  com- 
prehension of  local  conditions  and  future  changes.  In  the  first  place, 
the  years  which  followed  covered  a  period  of  pronounced  increase  in 
trade  between  the  two  countries.  In  1854,  the  imports  of  the  British 
Provinces  from  the  United  States  amounted  to  $7,725,000,  with 
$1,790,000  of  foreign  products — presumably  British  goods  brought  via 
American  railways  and  shipping.  The  exports  to  the  Republic  in 
that  year  were  $4,856,000  of  dutiable  goods  and  $322,000  of  goods 
paying  no  duty.  In  1866,  when  the  arrangement  was  abrogated,  the 
British  Provinces  had  imported  from  the  States  $22,380,000  of  their 
domestic  products  and  $2,448,000  of  foreign  products.     At  the  same 


330  RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR 

time  they  had  exported  $43,029,000  of  free  goods  and  $5,499,000  of 
dutiable  goods  to  the  American  market.  As,  however,  the  exports 
had  been  less  by  $10,000,000  in  the  preceding  year  there  was  no  doubt 
a  rush  of  produce  across  the  line  in  1866  to  take  advantage  of  the 
last  days  of  the  Treaty.  Still,  the  increase  had  been  very  marked 
and,  owing  largely  to  extraneous  conditions,  had  been  exceedingly 
beneficial  to  the  Canadian  farmer. 

CONDITIONS    UNDER     RECIPROCITY 

The  reasons  were  very  simple  and  very  plain.     The  Crimean 
War  had  first  raised  the  price  of  wheat  and  other  farm  products,  the 
American  Civil  War  had  maintained  the  higher  rate  and,  when  the 
Treaty  was  abrogated,  conditions  were   not  sufficiently  settled  for  a 
number  of  years  after  the  wholesale  withdrawal  of  millions  of  men 
from  farming  and  other  interests  of  the  Republic  to  allow  of  prices 
being  lowered  to  any  considerable  extent.     It  is  not  probable  that 
the    Reciprocity  arrangement   affected  this  condition  to    any  great 
extent  either  one  way  or  the  other.     Canadian  food  and   farm  pro- 
ducts— wheat,   oats,   horses,   cattle,   sheep — were  needed  and  would 
have  been  purchased  with  or  without  a  Treaty.    But  appearances  were 
certainly  favourable  to  its  reputation  and  many  a  farmer  in  Ontario 
to-day  dates   his  father's  prosperity  and    his  own  inheritance  from 
the  golden  days  of  Reciprocity.     In  addition  to  the  influence  of  war 
upon  prices,  the  Provinces  had  also  been  in  one  of  those  periods  of 
expansive  development  which  cover  all  contemporary  arrangements 
with  a  roseate  flush  of  colour.     An  era  of  active  construction  in  public 
works  commenced  at  the  same  time  as  the  Treaty  was  inaugurated. 
The  Grand  Trunk  Railway  was  built  to  the  extent  of  1,100  miles  at  a 
cost  to  the  local  authorities  of  $6,000,000  and  with  an  estimated  expen- 
diture of  $44,000,000  of  British  capital.     The  Victoria  Bridge  at  Mon- 
treal, described  by  the  American  Consul  at  that  city,  in  i860,  as  "  the 
great  work  of  the  age  "  was  erected  at  a  cost  of  nearly  $7,000,000. 


RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR  331 

Everywhere  money  was  being  poured  out  upon  all  kinds  of  public 
works  and  interests.  The  country  was  changing  from  a  pioneer  com- 
munity, with  practically  nothing  but  exports  of  timber  in  the  market 
of  the  world,  to  an  important  commercial  and  financial  country  and 
feeling  its  way  toward  conditions  which  were  to  make  a  national  union 
and  a  national  structure  necessary  and  possible.  So  far  as  the  British 
Provinces  were  concerned,  the  net  result  of  the  Treaty  was  an  appar- 
ent increase  of  trade — which  would  have  come  anyway  ;  greater 
facilities  for  the  interchange  of  goods ;  the  building  up  of  American 
railway  and  waterway  and  shipping  interests  at  the  expense  of  Canadian 
transportation  routes  ;  the  sapping  of  what  little  sentiment  there  had 
been  in  favour  of  inter-Provincial  trade  by  the  steadily  growing  ten- 
dency of  the  Provinces  to  send  their  products  to,  and  buy  their  goods 
from,  the  nearest  and  most  convenient  market — that  of  the  States  to 
the  south.  During  the  first  year  of  the  Treaty,  Canadian  imports 
and  exports  by  the  St.  Lawrence  had  decreased  from  $33,600,000  to 
$18,000,000  and  continued  to  do  so,  greatly  to  the  benefit  of  United 
States  trade  routes.  The  prosperous  condition  of  the  country  was, 
in  reality,  not  due  to  Reciprocity,  but  to  the  causes  already  outlined. 
None  the  less,  however,  did  the  Treaty  draw  the  ties  between  the  two 
countries  very  close  and  render  it  a  matter  for  grave  alarm  to  the  fin- 
ancial, commercial  and  agricultural  interests  of  the  Provinces  when 
the  ill-feeling  toward  England,  aroused  by  the  Civil  War,  threatened 
its  abrogation. 

The  balance  of  benefit  in  the  arrangement  was  really  with  the 
United  States.  Americans  enjoyed  the  free  navigation  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  use  of  the  costly  system  of  canals  which  was  slowly 
developing  through  the  expenditure  of  Provincial  money.  British- 
American  fisheries  were  open  to  the  fishermen  of  the  Republic  and 
Mr.  E.  H.  Derby,  in  his  Report  to  Congress  upon  the  results  of  the 
Treaty,  stated  the  number  of  American   fishing  vessels  in  Canadian 


332  RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR 

waters  in  1862  as  numbering  3,815.  Six  hundred  sail  during  a  single 
season  had  fished  for  mackerel  in  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  taking 
fish  to  the  value  of  $4,500,000.  Meantime,  hardly  a  British  smack 
found  its  way  into  American  waters.  -The  increase  of  trade  was  a 
boon  to  American  interests  before  the  Civil  War  as  well  as  after- 
wards. During  the  twelve  years  of  the  Treaty  $1 12,000,000  worth  of 
breadstuffs  were  sent  to  the  Provinces — largely  between  1854  and 
i860 — and  $88,000,000  of  manufactured  goods.  As  early  as  January 
1856,  a  Special  Committee  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce 
reported  that :  "  The  result  cannot  fail  to  be  greatly  advantageous  to 
both  countries.  While  the  trade  of  Canada  by  the  St.  Lawrence 
with  England  has  been  reduced,  that  with  the  United  States  has 
been  augmented  ;  our  canals  and  railroads  have  been  enriched  by  the 
transportation  of  their  surplus  productions  ;  our  neighbours  have  pur- 
chased largely  in  our  markets  of  domestic  manufactures ;  and  our 
vessels  have  had  the  advantage  of  an  increased  foreign  trade." 

Two  years  later  the  same  body  of  commercial  and  financial  mag- 
nates declared  by  Resolution  that  the  arrangement  was  "  one  of  the 
most  important  commercial  treaties  ever  made  by  our  Government." 
On  Febuary  10,  1862  the  Chicago  Board  of  Trade  declared  that 
"  the  Treaty  has  been  of  great  value  to  the  producing  interests  of  the 
whole  (American)  North-West."  On  March  8,  1864,  the  Boston 
Board  of  Trade  stated  that  its  continuance  "  is  demanded  by  the 
interests  of  American  commerce  ; "  while  on  December  9th  of  the 
same  year,  the  Detroit  Board  of  Trade  declared  that  the  agricultural 
and  commercial  interests  of  the  North-West  were  almost  unanimous 
in  favour  of  its  renewal  and  that,  "  in  whatever  way  we  view  the 
Treaty  it  has  been  of  vast  importance  to  us  as  well  as  to  the  Colo- 
nies." So  much  for  business  opinions  of  the  arrangement  in  the 
United  States  as  apart  from  political  sentiment  and  easily-aroused 
international  animosities.     According  to  American  figures  also — the 


RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR  333 

Treasury  Department  Bureau  of  Statistics — there  was  a  distinct 
balance  of  trade  in  favour  of  the  Republic  during  the  period  to  the 
extent  of  $54,000,000.  The  amount  of  exports  to  the  Provinces  was 
given  at  $350,576,000  and  the  imports  from  them  at  $295,766,000. 

WHY  THE  TREATY  WAS  ABROGATED 

Meanwhile,  events  were  evolving  which  were  to  destroy  the 
Treaty  and  help  to  effect  a  constitutional  revolution  in  the  Provinces. 
The  chief  nominal  cause  of  its  abrogation  in  1866  was  an  attempt  by 
Canada  to  protect  its  industries  in  a  very  moderate  and  tentative 
fashion.  The  financial  crisis  of  1857  in  the  United  States  had  con- 
siderably affected  Canadian  interests  for  a  time  and  proved  an  inter- 
regnum in  the  general  prosperity  of  the  period.  Banks  had  failed, 
investments  been  curtailed,  Provincial  revenues  greatly  lessened,  and 
a  deficit  created  which,  in  1858,  amounted  to  $2,000,000.  Some- 
thing had  therefore  to  be  done  with  the  tariff.  Mr.  A.  T.  Gait,  who 
held  the  position  in  the  Cartier-Macdonald  Government  which  cor- 
responded with  the  later  one  of  F'inance  Minister,  undertook  to 
re-arrange  the  duties  so  as  to  increase  the  revenue  and,  incidentally,  to 
afford  some  slight  protection  to  home  industries.  He  explained  pub- 
licly, that  "  the  policy  of  the  Government  in  re-adjusting  the  tariff 
has  been,  in  the  first  place,  to  obtain  sufficient  revenue  for  the  public 
wants ;  and  secondly,  to  do  so  in  such  a  manner  as  shall  most  fairly 
distribute  the  burden  upon  the  different  classes  of  the  community." 
And,  then,  he  went  on  to  say  that  the  Government  would  be  satisfied 
"  if  it  found  that  the  increased  duties  absolutely  required  to  meet  its 
engagements  should  incidentally  benefit  and  encourage  the  produc- 
tion in  this  country." 

This  was  the  first  practical  development  of  protection  in  Canada 
and  it  was  none  the  less  protection  because  of  being  termed  "  inci- 
dental." As  an  illustration  of  the  policy  it  may  be  pointed  out  that 
the  duty  on  boots  and  shoes  and  harness  goods  was  raised  from  i2j^ 


334  RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR 

per  cent,  in  1855,  to  20  per  cent,  in  1857  and  25  per  cent,  in  1859. 
On  cotton,  iron,  silk  and  woollen  manufactures  the  duties  were 
advanced  from  12^  per  cent,  in  1855,  to  15  per  cent,  in  1857  and  20 
percent,  in  1859.  Speaking  at  Hamilton,  in  1861,  Mr.  John  A.  Mac- 
donald  declared  that  **  it  is  a  matter  for  consolation  that  the  tariff  has 
been  so  adapted  as,  incidentally,  to  encourage  manufacturing  indus- 
tries here."  The  immediate  result  of  this  policy  was  an  equalization 
of  revenue  and  expenditure  and  the  raising  of  a  controversy  with 
certain  British  interests  which  objected  to  Colonial  tariffs  upon  their 
goods  and  were  not  yet  educated  up  to  the  full  and  inevitable  effect 
of  abrogating  the  mutual  preferential  duties  in  favour  of  British  and 
Colonial  products  which  had  existed  prior  to  1846.  The  manufactur- 
ers of  Sheffield  and  other  places  wanted  their  own  hands  freed,  but 
were  apparently  not  quite  ready  to  accord  the  same  fiscal  freedom  to 
Canadian  interests. 

Mr.  Gait  maintained  a  strong  and  spirited  correspondence  with 
the  Colonial  Office  in  connection  with  these  protests  as  did  one  of 
his  successors,  the  Hon.  John  Rose,  and  the  ultimate  result  was  a 
complete  recognition  of  the  Colonial  right  to  impose  duties  for  either 
revenue  or  protective  purposes  upon  British  and  foreign  goods. 
Very  unfairly  the  Gait  tariff  was  also  used  by  politicians  in  the  United 
States  who  were  hostile  to  England,  or  Canada,  or  both,  as  a  lever  to 
force  the  abrogation  of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty.  Although  millions 
of  dollars  worth  of  manufactures  were  being  sent  every  year  into  the 
Provinces  and  although  such  products  were  deliberately  excluded  from 
the  purview  of  the  orginal  Treaty,  yet  it  was  claimed  that  this 
re-adjusted  tariff  of  the  Canadas  was,  in  some  unspecified  way,  an 
infringement  of  British  obligations  under  the  international  arrange- 
ment. This  contention  was  maintained  until  the  very  end  and  despite 
such  statements  as  that  of  James  W.  Taylor,  in  an  elaborate  Report 
to  the  United  States  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  March,  i860,  that 


THE  HON.  SIR  WILLIAM  RALPH  MEREDITH 

KNT. 

Chief  Justice  of  the  Ontario  Court  of  Common  Pleas 


HIS  EMINENCE,  ELZEAR   ALEXANDRB 

CARDINAL  TASCHEREAU 


THE  HON.  HONORE   MERCIER,  Q.C. 
Prime  Minister  of  Quebec,  1887-91 


SIR  WILLIAM  CYAN  HORNE.  K.C.M.G. 


RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR  337 

"  Our  manufacturers  demand  that  Canada  shall  restore  the  scale  of 
duties  existing  when  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  was  ratified,  on  penalty 
of  its  abrogation.  When  it  is  considered  that  the  duties  imposed  by 
the  American  tariff  of  1857  are  fully  25  per  cent,  higher  than  the 
corresponding  rates  of  the  Canadian  tariff,  the  demand  borders  on 
arrogance."  Nor  does  the  claim  seem  to  have  been  affected  even  by 
the  similar  declaration  of  the  New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  on 
December  21,  1864,  that:  "The  additional  duties  on  our  manufac- 
tured imports  into  Canada  are  still  moderate  and  are  for  revenue 
purposes  only ;  and  that,  with  our  own  present  high  tariff,  we  are  the 
last  persons  who  have  a  right  to  complain  of  any  similar  procedure  ; 
and  that,  notwithstanding,  our  manufactures  find  a  large  outlet  in  that 
direction."  Five  years  before  this,  in  1859,  when  Lord  Napier,  then 
British  Ambassador  at  Washington,  submitted  proposals  for  "  the 
confirmation  and  expansion  of  free  commercial  relations  between 
the  United  States  and  the  British  Provinces"  they  had  been  de- 
clined. 

Yet  a  Committee  of  the  American  Congress  made  this  conten- 
tion the  string  upon  which  to  hang  a  somewhat  bitter  indictment 
against  Canada  for  illiberality  and  unfairness.  To  it  Mr.  Gait 
replied  *  by  quoting  the  perfect  freedom  of  the  St.  Lawrence  from 
the  Great  Lakes  to  the  ocean  ;  the  absence  of  light-house  dues  ;  the 
repeal  of  tonnage  dues  on  Lake  St.  Peter  ;  the  abolition  of  tolls  on  all 
vessels,  whether  American  or  Canadian  ;  the  opening  of  extensive  dis- 
tricts, east  and  west,  free  from  all  customs  dues  whatever.  He  pointed 
out  that  Canada  had  a  perfect  right  to  arrange  its  tariffs  upon  goods 
expressly  excluded  from  the  Treaty,  in  such  a  manner  as  was  best  suited 
to  its  own  interests.  He  declared  that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  United 
States  had  not  acted  fairly  in  many  matters.  They  had  imposed 
heavy  consular  fees  on  proof  of  origin  which  became  tantamount  to 

♦  Canadian  Sessional  Papers,  No.  23,  vol.  v„  i86?. 


338  RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR 

a  duty  and  which  were  not  removed  until  after  two  years  of  protest 
and  negotiation.  They  subjected  to  duty  flour  ground  in  Canada 
from  American  wheat  which  was  free  by  treaty.  They  imposed  a 
tax  upon  timber  cut  in  Canada  out  of  American  saw-logs,  although 
Canadian  saw-logs  were  free.  Canada  admitted  the  registration  of 
foreign  vessels  without  charge  ;  the  United  States  did  not.  Canada 
admitted  American  craft  free  of  all  toll  or  charge  through  her  system 
of  canals  to  the  sea ;  but  no  Canadian  boat  was  allowed,  even  on 
payment  of  toll,  to  enter  an  American  canal — despite  the  express 
stipulation  in  the  Treaty  itself  that  "the  Government  of  the  United 
States  further  engages  to  secure  to  the  subjects  of  Her  Britannic 
Majesty  the  use  of  the  several  State  canals  on  terms  of  equality  with 
the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States."  Foreign  goods  were  con- 
stantly bought  in  the  American  market  and  brought  into  Canada, 
paying  duty  only  upon  the  original  foreign  invoice  ;  but  American 
law  forbade  anything  of  the  kind  being  done  in  Canada. 

Such  was  the  general  Canadian  position  regarding  the  Treaty 
and  the  nominal  cause  of  its  abrogation.  It  is  not  probable  that  the 
American  complaints  concerning  the  Gait  Tariff  would  have  been  suffi- 
ciently strong,  or  have  had  enough  strength  behind  them,  to  procure 
or  even  seriously  to  endanger  its  existence,  had  there  not  arisen  the 
intense  anti-British  feeling  which  marked  the  progress  of  the  Trent 
Affair  and  had  been  first  stirred  up  by  the  escape  of  the  Alabama 
and  the  supposed  sympathy  of  Great  Britain  and  Canada  with  the 
South.  When  this  spirit  developed  the  abrogation  became  practi- 
cally inevitable,  although  the  business  interests  of  the  country  were 
opposed  to  such  an  action  and  various  Chambers  of  Commerce  con- 
tinued to  press  the  desirability  of  retaining  or  renewing  the  Treaty. 
One  of  the  notable  efforts  made  in  this  direction  was  the  holding  of 
an  international  Reciprocity  Convention  at  Detroit.  It  was  opened 
on  July  II,  1865,  and  many  who  were  then,  or  afterwards  became, 


RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR  339 

well-known  in  business  or  politics  in  the  British  Provinces,  were 
present — notably  Joseph  Howe,  William  McMaster,  Adam  Brown, 
Billa  Flint,  Isaac  Buchanan,  Elijah  Leonard,  J.  L.  Beaudry,  L.  H. 
Holton,  Sir  Hugh  Allan,  E.  H.  King,  Charles  J.  Brydges,  Peter 
Redpath,  James  Skead,  Charles  Fisher,  A.  E.  Botsford,  George 
Coles,  Erastus  Wiman  and  John  McMurrich. 

American  delegates  were  in  attendance  from  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore,  St.  Louis,  Boston  and  from  almost  every  impor- 
tant town  or  district  north  of  Washington.  A  Resolution  was  finally 
passed  asking  for  fresh  negotiations  and  a  new  Treaty.  The  most 
striking  event  of  the  gathering  was  the  wonderfully  eloquent  speech 
of  Joseph  Howe.  It  was  logical  in  argument,  forceful  in  presenting 
the  British  and  Canadian  case,  and  effective  in  its  personal  impressive- 
ness  beyond  any  other  Canadian  comparison.  Nothing,  however,  could 
overcome  the  feeling  which  prevailed  amongst  the  American  dele- 
gates, and  was  strengthened  by  pressure  from  Washington,  that  any 
strong  approval  of  the  Treaty,  or  even  of  its  eventual  renewal,  would 
retard  the  supposed  Canadian  movement  toward  annexation.  It  was 
believed  and  freely  pointed  out  that  a  period  of  fiscal  coercion  would 
greatly  assist  this  tendency. 

When  the  notice  of  abrogation  was  first  given  in  1865  it  came 
with  something  of  a  shock  to  the  Canadian  people.  They  had  grown 
so  accustomed  to  the  absence  of  tariff  walls  in  all  matters  connected 
with  the  products  of  the  farm,  the  forest,  the  mines  and  the  fisheries, 
that  their  coming  reconstruction  was  looked  upon  with  actual  dismay 
and  fear.  Business  and  transportation  interests  had  become  so  assimi- 
lated with  those  of  the  United  States  that  a  sudden  and  serious 
change  of  this  sort  threatened  to  precipitate  a  financial  panic.  Talk 
of  annexation  as  the  only  way  out  of  a  cul-de-sac  actually  did  become 
rampant  in  some  quarters  and  further  increased  the  fear  in  other 
directions  as  to  what  the  end  of  it  all  would  be.     Interests  built  up 


340  RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR 

as  a  result  of  twelve  years  of  close  trade  relations  between  the  two 
countries  trembled  on  the  verge  of  ruin.  The  Government  appealed 
to  the  Mother-country  to  try  and  avert  what  they  declared  the  people 
would  regard  as  "a  great  calamity."  John  A.  Macdonald,  George  E. 
Cartier,  George  Brown  and  A.  T.  Gait  were  sent  post  haste  to  Eng- 
land to  point  out  that  the  whole  trade  of  Canada  would  have  to  be 
turned  into  new  channels  and  much  disaster  follow  if  something  could* 
not  be  done  to  renew  the  arrangement.  Of  course  the  Imperial  Gov- 
ernment did  what  it  could  and,  in  1866,  A.  T.  Gait  and  W.  P. 
Howland  from  Canada,  W.  A.  Henry  from  Nova  Scotia,  and  A.  J. 
Smith  from  New  Brunswick,  met  Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  the  British 
Minister  at  Washington.  Through  him  they  tried  to  negotiate  a 
renewal.  It  was  useless,  however,  and  in  the  succeeding  year  the 
Treaty  ceased  to  exist.  At  the  same  time  the  Fenian  raids  took 
place  and  added  the  danger  and  the  fact  of  actual  aggression,  to 
Canadian  fears  of  commercial  disaster  and  restriction. 

The  whole  trouble  arose  out  of  the  American  Civil  War  and  the 
irremovable  impression  of  the  Northern  States  that  English  sympa- 
thy was  with  their  antagonists.  There  is  no  doubt  that  a  majority  of 
the  British  aristocracy  sympathized  with  the  South  ;  that  Palmerston 
and  Gladstone  and  other  leaders  had  expressed  feelings  of  this  kind 
in  language  as  plain  as  it  was  unwise ;  that  the  great  Reviews  and 
many  of  the  newspapers  of  England  believed  the  war  to  be  one  of 
conquest  and  not  of  national  unity.  But  the  Queen  is  now  known  to 
have  not  only  approved  the  cause  of  the  North  but  to  have  held 
back  her  Government  from  that  formal  recognition  of  the  Southern 
States  which  would  have  made  France  and  England  their  inevitable 
allies ;  leaders  of  such  opposite  schools  of  thought  as  Disraeli  and 
Bright  warmly  espoused  the  side  of  the  North  ;  the  men  of  Lanca- 
shire, dependent  upon  the  receipt  of  Southern  cotton  for  their  manu- 
factures, preferred  to  starve  and  actually  did  starve  rather  than  ask 


RECIPROCITY  AND  THE  UNITED  STATES  CIVIL  WAR  341 

their  Government  to  interfere  in  the  contest ;  the  Government  even- 
tually refused  the  overtures  of  Napoleon  III.  to  intervene,  despite 
the  close  relations  of  the  time  with  France  and  the  close  personal 
friendship  between  the  Queen  and  the  Emperor  and  Empress.  Can- 
ada, on  her  side,  contributed  thousands  of  volunteers  to  the  Northern 
armies  and  never  showed  any  official  sympathy  with  the  South,  what- 
ever individuals  may  have  felt. 

But  all  this  was  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  accidental 
escape  of  the  Alabama  and  the  storm  which  found  expression  after 
the  seizure  of  Mason  and  Slidell  in  a  British  ship  and  the  necessity  of 
surrendering  them  again  to  the  Power  which  had  been  insulted.  The 
first  result  of  the  feeling  thus  aroused  was  the  abrogation  of  the  Reci- 
procity Treaty,  the  second  was  the  tacit  encouragement  given  to  the 
Fenian  movement  upon  Canada,  the  third  was  the  pressing  of  the 
Alabama  claims  to  the  point  of  war,  the  fourth  was  the  Treaty  of 
Washington  in  1871. 


19 


CHAPTER  XVII 
The  Confederation  of  the  Provinces 

THE  union  of  all  the  Provinces  of  British  America  did  not  come 
in  a  moment  nor  did  it  come,  as  superficial  observers  some- 
times say,  because  political  complications  had  arisen  in  the 
Canadas.  Despite  this  belief  and  the  assertion  of  Mr.  Goldwin 
Smith  that  the  parent  of  Canadian  Confederation  was  constitutional 
deadlock  it  appears  evident  to  the  close  student  of  history  that  the 
political  issue  was  only  one  of  many  under-currents  trending  in  the 
same  direction  and  all  combining  to  make  federation  inevitable,  as 
well  as  desirable.  The  idea,  as  practically  considered  in  1864  and 
achieved  in  1867,  was  not  a  new  one  in  itself  nor  was  it  the  posses- 
sion of  any  single  mind  in  the  annals  of  British  America. 

EARLY  ADVOCATES  OF  THE  IDEA 

Aside  from  proposals  by  Francis  Nicholson,  Governor  Hutchin- 
son, Benjamin  Franklin  and  William  Smith  for  the  application  of  the 
scheme  to  all  the  American  Colonies  in  days  before  the  Revolution,  its 
first  formal  suggestion  in  the  British  America  of  the  present  time  was 
by  Richard  J.  Uniacke,  in  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  Nova  Scotia, 
in-  1800.  This  was  followed  in  18 14  by  the  probably  quite  indepen- 
dent and  original  advocacy  of  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Sewell,  in  his  well 
known  correspondence  with  H.R.H.  the  Duke  of  Kent.  Mr.  Sewell, 
afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  Quebec  and  during  many  years  a  promin- 
ent figure  in  the  politics  of  his  Province,  proposed  a  federal  union  of 
all  the  Provinces  with  one  Assembly  of  thirty  members.  The  Queen's 
father,  who  had  always  taken  a  deep  interest  in  British  America, 
besides  serving  at  both  Halifax  and  Quebec  in  command  of  the 
342 


THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES  343 

troops,  went  carefully  into  the  matter  and  suggested  as  a  preliminary 
the  legislative  union  of  the  Canadas  in  one  division  and  of  the 
Maritime  Provinces  in  another,  with  a  Federal  Government  at 
Quebec,  for  the  whole.  Ten  years  later  Chief  Justice  Sewell,  Chief 
Justice  Sir  John  Beverley  Robinson  of  Upper  Canada,  and  Bishop 
Strachan,  presented  a  pamphlet  scheme  for  a  general  union  to  the 
Imperial  authorities. 

THE    IDEA    FINDS    MANY    SUPPORTERS 

So  far,  the  idea  had  been  essentially  a  Tory  one  and  it  was 
treated  with  con.tumely  by  French  Canadians  as  well  as  by  Radical 
leaders.  But  about  this  time  it  was  supported  in  a  tentative  and 
theoretical  way  by  Robert  Gourlay  and  W.  L.  Mackenzie  and,  in 
1837-8,  was  favoured  in  more  or  less  academic  resolutions  by  both  the 
British  House  of  Commons  and  the  Upper  Canada  Legislature. 
Then  came  the  recommendation  of  Lord  Durham  and  the  union  of 
the  Canadas.  In  1849  the  Canadian  Legislative  Council  declared  in 
favour  of  federation,  while  the  troubles  at  Montreal  and  elsewhere  in 
connection  with  Rebellion  losses  legislation,  British  free-trade 
legislation,  and  the  Annexation  movement  of  the  same  year,  induced 
the  British  North  American  League  to  include  Confederation  as  a 
first  and  foremost  plank  in  its  platform.  The  advocates  of  the  policy 
in  this  popular  body,  it  is  worthy  of  notice,  were  largely  enthusiastic 
young  Tories  under  the  leadership  of  the  now  rising  politician — the 
Hon.  John  A.  Macdonald.  In  1851  the  latter  attended  a  mass 
meeting  in  Montreal  and  supported  a  resolution  in  favour  of  the 
principle  while,  about  the  same  time,  the  Hon.  Henry  Sherwood,  an 
old-time  Loyalist  and  Tory  leader,  published  a  strongly  favourable 
pamphlet. 

During  the  next  few  years  the  Hon.  James  W.  Johnston, 
Conservative  leader  in  Nova  Scotia,  Mr.  Pierce  S.  Hamilton,  an  able 
publicist  and  writer  in  the  same  Province,  and  the   Hon.   J.  H.  Gray 


344  THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES 

in  New  Brunswick,  all  supported  the  idea  in  speeches  or  writings.  Mr. 
Johnston  and  the  Hon.  A.  G.  Archibald  urged  the  proposal  officially 
in  1857  and  about  the  same  time  there  appeared  its  first  popular 
advocacy  by  a  French-Canadian  in  the  form  of  a  series  of  letters  by 
Mr.  J.  C.  Tache  in  Le  Courrier  du  Canada.  During  1858  the  Hon. 
A.  T.  Gait,  in  various  speeches,  and  the  Hon.  T.  D'Arcy  McGee  in 
the  Legislative  Assembly  of  the  Canadas,  favoured  the  policy  while 
it  received  for  the  first  time  an  official  Canadian  imprimatur  by  the 
Governor-General,  Sir  Edmund  W.  Head,  announcing  at  the  closing 
of  the  Session  that  he  intended  to  communicate  upon  the  subject  with 
the  Imperial  Government  and  the  Governments  of  the  other  Colonies 
and  that  he  was  "  desirous  of  invitinof  them  to  discuss  with  us  the 
principles  on  which  a  bond  of  a  federal  character  uniting  the  Provinces 
of  British  North  America  may,  perhaps,  hereafter  be  practicable." 

In  the  same  year  his  Government  sent  Messrs.  Cartier,  Gait  and 
John  Ross  to  England  for  the  purpose  of  inviting  the  Home  Gov- 
ernment to  appoint  Delegates  from  all  the  Provinces  to  discuss  a 
federal  union.  Naturally,  and  properly,  the  Imperial  authorities  did 
not  see  their  way  to  assume  such  a  responsibility  and  preferred  leav- 
ing the  seed  to  grow  in  its  own  soil  until  a  stage  of  fruition  had  been 
reached  in  which  the  various  branches  of  a  single  stem  might  draw 
together  of  their  own  volition. 

About  the  time  of  this  mission  to  England,  Mr.  Alexander 
Morris — long  afterwards  Lieutenant-Governor  and  Chief  Justice  of 
Manitoba  in  succession — delivered  a  somewhat  famous  lecture  in 
Montreal  and  published  it  under  the  title  of  Nova  Britannia.  In  it 
he  foretold  a  future  fusion  of  races  in  British  America,  a  union  of  all 
the  Provinces  and  territories  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  a  railway  to  the 
Pacific.  During  the  same  year,  and  in  the  Montreal  Gazette,  there 
appeared  a  strong  letter  in  favour  of  union  written  by  James  Ander- 
son and  significant  for  its  reference  to  John  A.  Macdonald  as  "the 


THE  HON,  SIR  J.  W.  TRUTCH,  K.C.M.O. 
Lieutenant-Governor  of  British  Columbia,  1871-76 


THE  HON.  GEORGE  A.  WALKEM 

Premier  of  British  Columbia,  1874-76 


THE   HON.  THEODORE  DAVIE 
i'remier  of  British  Columb.a,  1892-95 


THE  HON.  JOHN  ROBSON 
Premier  of  British  Columbia.  188'J-92 


THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES  347 

primary  mind  of  the  Canadian  Legislative  Assembly  "  and  as  long  since 
prepared  for  carrying  out  this  policy.  Upon  the  failure  of  the  Cana- 
dian Delegation  already  referred  to,  the  Maritime  Provinces  sent 
another  one  and  it  was  assured  that  no  obstacles  would  be  placed  in 
the  way  of  union — Mr.  Labouchere,  the  Colonial  Secretary  and 
afterwards  Lord  Taunton,  going  so  far  as  to  say  that  he  thought  a 
union  amongst  the  Maritime  Provinces  themselves  would  be  exceed- 
ingly beneficial.  The  question  now  became  more  and  more  widely 
discussed.  Tariff  and  railway  matters  brought  the  Provinces  from 
time  to  time  before  the  attention  of  portions  of  the  British  public 
while  the  idea  itself  was  slowly  but  surely  sifting  into  and  permeating 
the  minds  of  people  in  the  Provinces. 

In  1859  a  gathering  of  Bristol  merchants  urged  the  importance 
of  the  proposed  Inter-Colonial  Railway  as  a  help  towards  union  and, 
a  little  later,  in  one  of  the  eddying  currents  of  political  opinion  dur- 
ing that  period  of  conflict,  a  Liberal  Convention  at  Toronto  passed  a 
resolution  deprecating  federal  union.  In  the  following  year  the  Hali- 
fax Reporter  supported  the  principle  strenuously  and  one  of  its  edi- 
torials on  the  subject  is  said  to  have  received  the  approval  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  when  he  was  starting  from  Halifax  upon  his  tour  of 
the  Provinces.  Dr.  Charles  Tupper,  about  the  same  time,  lectured 
in  its  favour  at  St.  John  and  in  the  succeeding  year  Mr.  John  A.  Mac- 
donald  declared  in  an  address  to  the  electors  of  Kingston,  that  "  the 
Government  will  not  relax  its  exertions  to  effect  a  Confederation  of 
the  British  North  American  Provinces."  About  the  same  time,  also, 
Mr.  Joseph  Howe  moved  a  Resolution  in  the  Nova  Scotian  Assembly 
asking  the  Lieutenant-Governor  to  ascertain  the  views  of  the  Colonial 
Secretary,  the  Governor-General  and  the  other  Lieutenant-Governors 
upon  the  question.  From  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  Colonial  Secre- 
tary, came  an  intimation  in  reply  that  if  the  Provinces  took  any 
action   in  the  matter  the  result  would  be  weighed  by  Her  Majesty's 


348  THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES 

Government  "  with  no  other  feehng  than  an  anxiety  to  discern  and 
promote  any  course  most  conducive  to  the  prosperity,  the  strength 
and  the  harmony"  of  the  British  communities  in  North  America. 

Finally,  in  1864,  Mr.  George  Brown  reported  from,  and  on  behalf 
of,  a  Committee  of  the  Canadian  Legislature  in  favour  of  Confeder- 
ation. Just  at  this  moment  Resolutions  appointing  Delegates  to  meet 
at  Charlottetown  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  a  union  of  the  Mari- 
time Provinces  had  been  passed  in  the  Legislature  of  Nova  Scotia, 
mainly  through  the  initiative  of  Dr.  Tupper,  in  that  of  New  Bruns- 
wick through  the  exertions  of  Mr.  S.  L.  Tilley  and  in  the  Legislature 
of  Prince  Edward  Island  through  the  influence  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Pope. 
The  Conference  met  and  received  a  deputation  from  the  Province  of 
Canada  composed  of  John  A.  Macdonald,  George  Brown,  George  E. 
Cartier,  A.  T.  Gait,  T.  D'Arcy  McGee,  Alexander  Campbell  and  H. 
L.  Langevin.  The  result  of  the  representations  made  by  the  Cana- 
dians was  a  decision  to  enlarge  the  scope  and  policy  of  the  Conven- 
tion so  to  cover  all  the  Provinces  and  to  adjourn  with  a  view  of 
meeting  in  a  fuller  and  more  authoritative  gathering  for  a  discussion 
of  the  greater  federal  union. 

CAUSES    OF    CONFEDERATION 

How  the  movement  had  come  to  reach  this  advanced  stage  is 
an  interesting  story.  As  already  stated  there  was  no  single  cause 
sufificiently  strong  to  have  forced  it  to  a  head.  There  was,  how- 
ever, the  concurrent  pressure  of  a  number  of  influences,  which, 
in  concrete  form,  brought  about  the  result.  First  and  foremost  was 
the  growing  hostility  of  the  United  States  as  exhibited  in  the  Trent 
Affair,  embodied  in  newspaper  articles  against  England,  and  impressed 
upon  the  Provinces  by  the  threatened  abrogation  of  the  Reciprocity 
Treaty.  Then,  there  existed  a  feeling  in  many  far-seeing  minds  that 
there  was,  perhaps,  a  deeper  danger  in  the  existing  development  of 
the  separated  Provinces  toward  the  United  States  in   a  commercial 


THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES  349 

and  financial  sense,  than  there  would  be  in  any  condition  of  actual 
and  permanent  antagonism  upon  the  part  of  the  Republic.  If  mat- 
ters went  on  as  they  were  going  and  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  should 
be  renewed  it  seemed  apparent  to  these  thinkers  that  the  ties  between 
the  Provinces  and  individual  States  to  the  south  would  become  so 
strong  as  to  draw  the  former  still  further  from  each  other  and  make 
a  future  united  British  country  practically  impossible. 

The  Colonial  Office  had  also  commenced  to  take  an  interest  in 
the  matter  and  the  rejection  of  a  Militia  Bill  in  the  Canadian  Legis- 
lature from  purely  partisan  motives,  at  a  critical  moment  in  the 
Trent  Affair  when  England  was  pouring  troops  by  thousands  into 
British  America,  had  aroused  attention  to  the  weakness  of  the  Prov- 
inces from  a  defensive  standpoint  and  to  the  greater  weakness  arising 
out  of  politics  which  were  truly  Provincial  in  their  pettiness  and  yet 
injurious  in  their  strength  of  feeling.  To  obtain  organization  in  a 
military  sense  it  was  seen  that  organization  in  a  constitutional  sense 
must  first  be  created  and,  from  the  earlier  "  sixties "  onward,  the 
Imperial  Government  consistently  but  quietly  utilized  its  influence 
to  forward  the  idea  of  unity  and  federation.  Lord  Monck,  who 
became  Governor-General  in  1861,  used  all  his  ability  and  the  silent, 
continuous  pressure  of  Vice-regal  approval  to  advance  the  principle  ; 
Lieutenant-Governors  were  appointed  with  distinct,  though  private, 
instructions  along  the  same  line  and  at  least  one  of  them  was  removed 
for  expressions  unfavourable  to  the  policy.  This  was  an  important 
aid  to  the  inception  of  Confederation  which  is  often  overlooked. 

Equally  important,  but  not  of  supreme  importance  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  movement,  was  the  dead-lock  in  Government  which  arose 
af  Ottawa.  The  conflicting  elements  in  this  trouble  were  almost 
innumerable  though  a  few  stand  out  with  greater  prominence  than 
others.  The  racial  feeling  was  still  strong  in  Lower  Canada  and 
found  frequent  expression  in  the  Legislature,  in  the  choice  of  political 


350  THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES 

leaders,  in  the  almost  bewildering  difficulties  of  Cabinet  forma- 
tion. The  absence  of  a  Prime  Minister  in  the  full  constitutional 
sense  of  the  word  and  the  existence  of  two  leaders  in  the  Cabinet 
with  distinct  territorial  and  racial  jurisdiction  (the  Attorneys-General 
of  Canada  East  and  West)  was  a  source  of  endless  and  inevitable 
confusion.  The  slow  but  steady  disruption  of  the  Liberal  party  by 
the  formation  of  George  Brown's  anti-French  and  anti-Catholic 
organization  and  the  vigorous,  slashing  style  of  the  Globe  under  his 
control  were  elements  which  naturally  added  to  the  complexities  of 
the  situation.  It  took  time  also  for  Mr.  Macdonald's  new  party  to 
evolve  and  the  French-Canadians  were  slow  to  leave  their  racial  unity 
of  thought  and  action  and  to  divide  in  a  party  sense — even  under  the 
goad  of  George  Brown's  continued  onslaughts  in  connection  with  the 
question  of  representation  by  population.  They  had  so  long  and 
harmoniously  called  themselves  Radicals,  or  Liberals,  or  Reformers ; 
they  had  so  bitterly  fought  the  Tories,  or  Conservatives,  in  the  first 
forty  years  of  the  century  ;  they  had  so  strongly  regarded  the  latter 
as  identified  with  a  hated  form  of  British  racial  supremacy  ;  that  it 
was  difficult  even  for  the  most  tactful  of  statesmen  to  chanofe  their 
party  allegiance.  The  change  was  bound  to  be  a  slow  one  and,  in 
the  meantime,  the  deadlock  came  when  no  party  in  the  nominally 
united  Provinces  could  form  or  hold  a  Government. 

Other  and  minor  influences  there  were  in  the  development 
toward  union.  The  politicians  of  the  Provinces  were  becoming  better 
known  to  one  another  and  their  frequent  conferences  upon  railway 
and  other  matters  insensibly  taught  them  the  common  interests 
which  should  exist,  and  really  did  exist,  amongst  their  peoples.  With 
the  increase  of  population  and  the  growth  of  railways  there  came  also 
some  measure  of  increased  intercourse  and  trade — though  these  were 
greatly  checked  by  the  close  relation  with  southern  neighbours.  A 
certain  element  amongst  the  people — many  of  them  French-Canadians 


THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES  351 

— dreamed  of  a  distant  future  of  complete  independence  and  there 
were  men  in  all  the  Provinces  favourable  to  Confederation  as  a 
step  in  that  direction.  Others  wanted  annexation  and  thought  this 
policy  would  make  them  strong  enough  to,  some  day,  throw  off  "  the 
bonds  of  British  connection  "  and  to  then  throw  themselves  into  the 
arms  of  the  Republic.  Loyalists  of  the  olden  type — and  they  were 
still  numerous — felt  that  the  only  hope  of  protecting  their  indepen- 
dence from  the  United  States  was  by  a  policy  of  uniting  British 
resources  in  the  creation  of  a  strong  British  state.  Thus,  all  kinds  of 
cross  currents  of  vague  opinion  were  beinggradually  moulded  into  shape 
and  prepared  for  supporting  the  general  principles  of  unity.  During 
the  succeeding  years,  1865-6,  the  abrogation  of  Reciprocity  and  the 
Fenian  raids  were  to  change  greatly  the  course  of  minor  streams  of 
thought  and  unite  public  sentiment  in  favour  of  Confederation  as  the 
only  safeguard  against  an  American  policy  of  either  coercion  or  con- 
ciliation. Though  in  the  first  instance  one  of  many  original  causes 
of  Confederation  this  feeling  became  in  the  end  the  predominant 
popular  reason  for  approval  of  a  policy  which  by  1865  was  practically 
consummated. 

A    MEMORABLE    CONFERENCE 

The  Conference  of  statesmen  which  met  at  Quebec  on  October 
10,  1864,  was  a  memorable  gathering  in  Canadian  history.  The 
"  Fathers  of  Confederation  "  who  then  met  with  the  object  of  laying 
the  constitutional  foundations  of  a  new  British  nation  were  men  of 
great  ability  in  many  cases,  of  much  local  influence  in  all  cases. 
Some  of  them  would  have  graced  the  matured  counsels  of  an  Empire 
instead  of  the  infant  stages  of  national  construction.  Canada  was 
well  represented.  Its  master-mind,  in  the  person  of  John  A.  Mac- 
donald,  was  then  in  all  the  vigour  of  his  keen,  constructive  intellect 
and  a  subtle,  supple  comprehension  of  the  quick-changing  fancies  of 
the  public  and  its  political  leaders.      Marred  as  his  ability  was  by  the 


352  THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES 

weakness  which  at  times  detached  him  from  serious  matters  and 
plunged  his  genial  personality  in  a  self-indulgence  which  would  have 
ruined  any  lesser  man,  there  could  be  no  doubt  of  his  foremost  place 
in  any  gathering  of  contemporaries.  Sir  Etienne  Paschal  Tache,  the 
cultured,  patriotic  French-Canadian  gentleman  who  once  declared  that 
the  last  gun  fired  in  North  America  in  defence  of  British  connection 
would  be  fired  by  one  of  his  race,  was  there,  and  with  unanimous 
approval  took  the  place  of  Chairman. 

George  Brown,  the  energetic,  forceful  personality,  the  honest 
lover  of  his  country,  the  bitter  antagonist  of  French  or  Catholic 
supremacy  in  its  affairs,  was  present  with  a  sincere  desire  to  advance 
that  cause  of  union  which,  for  some  years,  he  had  been  most  earnestly 
advocating.  George  Etienne  Cartier,  the  admirer  and  friend  and 
colleague  of  "John  A."  was  there  as  representative  of  the  growing 
Conservative  party  of  French  Canada.  Alexander  Tilloch  Gait, 
independent  in  view,  sturdy  in  character,  honest  in  purpose,  was  pres- 
ent as  representative  and  guardian  of  the  Protestant  interests  of  the 
Eastern  Townships  of  Lower  Canada.  William  McDougall,  a  singu- 
larly able  man  with  a  disappointing  subsequent  career;  Thomas 
D'Arcy  McGee,  a  brilliant  Irishman  of  patriotic  and  eloquent  person- 
ality and  with  a  melancholy  death  not  very  far  away  in  the  fields  of 
fate  ;  Oliver  Mowat,  a  rising  Liberal  leader,  Alexander  Campbell  and 
James  Cockbum,  two  prominent  Conservative  politicians.  Hector 
Louis  Langevin  and  Jean  Charles  Chapais,  two  French-Canadians  of 
acknowledged  ability ;  completed  the  list  of  Delegates  from  the 
Canadas. 

From  Nova  Scotia  came  the  strenuous,  aggressive,  forceful  per- 
sonality of  Charles  Tupper,  able  and  eloquent,  and  destined  to  be  the 
life-long  friend  and  ultimate  successor  of  Sir  John  Macdonald.  With 
him  were  well-known  men  in  the  field  of  local  politics — W.  A.  Henry, 
a  future  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Canada,  Jonathan  McCuUy 


THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES  353 

and  R.  B.  Dickey,  members  of  its  future  Senate,  Adams  George 
Archibald,  a  Lieutenant-Governor  of  two  of  its  coming  Provinces. 
From  New  Brunswick  came  the  suave,  pleasant  and  popular  Samuel 
Leonard  Tilley,  an  able  politician  and  a  good  financier  of  the  future. 
With  him  were  John  M.  Johnston,  Charles  Fisher,  Peter  Mitchell, 
Edward  Barron  Chandler,  W.  H.  Steeves  and  John  Hamilton  Gray 
— only  one  of  whom,  in  the  person  of  Peter  Mitchell,  can  be  said  to 
have  obtained  a  national  reputation  ;  yet  all  of  whom  were  men  of 
marked  ability  in  different  ways  and  differing  degrees.  Prince  Edward 
Island  was  represented  by  Colonel  Gray,  Edward  Palmer,  afterwards 
its  Chief  Justice,  W.  H»  Pope,  George  Coles,  Edward  Whelan,  T.  H. 
Haviland  and  A.  A.  Macdonald — the  two  last  living  to  preside  over 
their  native  Province  as  Lieutenant-Governors.  Newfoundland, 
though  it  shared  the  policy  of  its  sister  Island  in  ultimately  refusing 
for  a  time  to  enter  Confederation,  sent  Delegates  to  the  Conference 
in  the  persons  of  F.  B.  T.  Carter  and  Ambrose  Shea — each  of  whom 
in  later  days  won  his  knighthood  from  the  Crown. 

Such  was  the  gathering  which,  after  prolonged  discussion,  finally 
passed  the  seventy-two  Resolutions  which,  practically  constituted  the 
British  North  America  Act  of  1867 — so  far  as  the  terms  and  condi- 
tions of  that  measure  were  concerned.  There  was,  however,  a  long 
struggle  before  success  came  and  the  causes  and  sentiments,  already 
referred  to,  had  been  given  the  opportunity  of  chrystalizing  into  a 
general  acceptance  of  the  document.  The  Union  Resolutions  were 
adopted  in  the  Canadian  Assembly,  in  1865,  ^X  ninety-one  to  thirty- 
three  votes  and  in  the  Council  by  eighty-five  to  forty-five  votes — 
fifty-four  from  Upper  Canada  and  thirty-seven  from  Lower  Canada 
constituting  the  favourable  vote  in  the  Assembly.  After  two  general 
elections  in  New  Brunswick  and  a  passing  change  of  Government  the 
Resolutions  were  approved  in  July,  1S66,  by  good  majorities.  In 
Nova  Scotia,   as  in   Canada,   the   Resolutions  were  adopted   by  the 


354  THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES 

Legislature — on  motion  of  the   Hon.  Dr.  Tupper  in  the   Assembly 
and  by  a  vote  of  thirteen  to  nineteen — without  a  general  election. 

In  this  latter  Province  grave  troubles  were  to  ensue  as  a  result  of 
Joseph  Howe's  opposition  to  Confederation.  He  had  been  excluded 
from  the  Conferences  for  reasons  technically  correct,  but  which  seem 
in  the  judgment  of  later  times  to  have  been  politically  unwise.  The 
decision  to  oppose  the  measure  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  sud- 
den one,  but  to  have  developed  out  of  reasons  beyond  his  control 
and,  perhaps,  chiefly  because  of  the  impossibility  of  two  such  Csesars 
as  Tupper  and  Howe  ruling  in  the  same  party  organization  at  the 
same  time.  There  were,  of  course,  other  men  of  prominence  in  the 
Provinces  who  had  not  been  members  of  the  Quebec  Conference. 
Sir  N.  F.  Belleau,  John  Hillyard  Cameron,  Malcolm  Cameron,  P.  J. 
O.  Chauveau,  Antoine  Aime  Dorion,  M.  H.  Foley,  Luther  Hamilton 
Holton,  J.  Sandfield  Macdonald,  John  Rose  and  Francis  Hincks,  were 
none  of  them  present — some,  perhaps,  because  of  known  opposition 
to  the  scheme  ;  Francis  Hincks,  because  of  absence  from  the  scene 
of  his  many  political  labours  as  Governor  of  British  Guiana.  But 
all  of  them  put  together  were  not  as  important  at  this  juncture  as 
Joseph  Howe.  While  his  constructive  statesmanship  does  not  seem 
to  have  been  remarkable,  the  effect  of  his  eloquence  would  have  been 
very  great  and,  could  it  have  been  brought  to  bear  in  all  the  Provinces 
at  a  later  period,  must  have  hastened  the  growth  of  a  Canadian  senti- 
ment which  proved  rather  slow  in  maturing. 

COMPLETING    THE    CONSTITUTION 

In  December,  1866,  Delegates  from  the  Provinces  of  Canada, 
Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick  met  in  London  to  make  the  final 
preparations  and  to  see  the  measure  through  the  Imperial  Parliament. 
Mr.  John  A.  Macdonald  was  appointed  Chairman  of  the  Conference 
and,  of  those  who  had  been  at  Quebec,  Messrs.  McDougall,  Tilley, 
Tupper,  Cartier,  Gait,  McCully,  Fisher,  Johnston,  Mitchell,  Archibald, 


THE  HON.  J.  P.  O.  CHAUVEAU,  Q.C., 
LL.D. 

Prime  Minister  of  Quebec,  1867-73 


THE  HON.  C.  E.  B.  DE  BOUCHERVILLK 

C.M.G. 

Prime  Minister  of  Quebec,  1874-76,  1891-92 


THE  HON.  SIR    NARCISSE  F.  BELLEAU 

K.C.M.G. 

Lieutenant-Governor  of  Quebec,  1867-73 


THE  HON.  THOMAS  WHITE.  M.P. 


THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES  357 

Langevin  and  Henry  were  also  present,  as  were  three  new  men — J. 
W.  Ritchie,  W.  P.  Howland  and  R.  D.  Wilmot.  The  final  details 
were  settled  and,  on  the  28th  of  March,  1867,  the  Resolutions,  after 
passing  through  the  Imperial  Parliament  as  the  British  North  Amer- 
ica Act,  received  the  Queen's  assent  and  became  the  constitution  of 
the  new  Dominion  *  of  Canada  on  the  ensuing  ist  of  July. 

Under  the  terms  of  this  Federal  constitution,  or  by  virtue  of 
British  precedents  and  practices  afterwards  read  into  it,  the  following 
system  was  established,  or  has  in  its  working  details  been  since 
evolved : 

1.  A  Governor-General  representing  the  Sovereign,  appointed 
by  the  Crown  for  five  years  and  holding,  practically,  the  same  place  in 
the  Canadian  constitution  as  the  Queen  does  in  that  of  Great  Britain. 

2.  A  Cabinet  composed  of  members  of  the  Queen's  Privy  Coun- 
cil for  Canada,  who  may  be  chosen  from  either  branch  of  Parliament 
and  whose  chief  is  termed  the  Premier.  He  has  usually  been  leader 
of  the  House  of  Commons  as  well  as  the  recognized  leader  of  his 
party.  The  Cabinet  must  command  the  support  or  confidence  of  a 
majority  in  the  Commons.  The  Ministers  may  vary  in  number  as 
well  as  the  Departments  of  Government — the  administration  of  which 
usually  falls  to  members  of  the  Cabinet. 

3.  A  Senate,  whose  members  are  appointed  for  life  by  the  Gov- 
ernor-General-in-Council.  It  is  composed  of  seventy-eight  members 
who  must  possess  property  qualifications,  be  thirty  years  of  age  and 
British  subjects.  They  receive  $1,000  for  a  Session  of  thirty  days, 
with  travelling  expenses. 

4.  A  House  of  Commons  composed  of  members  elected  for  a 
maximum  period  of  five  years  by  popular  vote — from  1898  under  the 
franchise  of  the  different  Provinces.  There  is  no  property  qualification, 

•  It  is  to  be  regretted,  in  light  of  later  Imperialistic  developments,  that  Sir  John  Macdonald's  proposal  in  the  first 
draft  of  the  Act  to  make  the  title,  "  Kingdom  of  Canada,"  should  have  been  opposed  by  Lord  Stanley  (i6th  Earl  of 
Derby)  who  was  then  the  Foreign  Secretary,  as  being  likely  to  offend  the  susceptibilities  of  the  United  States. 


358  THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES 

but  members  must  be  at  least  twenty-one  years  of  age,  British  subjects, 
and  not  disqualified  by  law.  There  are  213  members  and  the  Ses- 
sional allowance  is  $1,000. 

6.  The  Provincial  Governments  are  composed  of  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  appointed  for  a  term  of  five  years  by  the  Governor-General 
in-Council  (which  phrase  usually  means  the  Dominion  Cabinet)  ;  the 
Ministry,  composed  of  Departmental  officers  selected  from  either 
House  of  the  Legislature  and  often  having  additional  members  with- 
out office  or  emolument ;  a  Legislative  Council,*  in  Nova  Scotia  and 
Quebec,  composed  of  members  appointed  by  the  Provincial  Govern- 
ment, or  Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council,  and  in  Prince  Edward 
Island  elected  by  the  people  ;  and  a  Legislative  Assembly  elected  for 
four  years  by  popular  vote.  In  all  the  Provinces  manhood  suffrage, 
limited  by  residence  and  citizenship,  is  the  law  except  in  Prince 
Edward  Island. 

Under  the  terms  of  Union  the  Dominion  Parliament  was  to  have 
control  of  the  general  affairs  of  the  country,  including  all  matters  not 
specifically  delegated  to  the  Provincial  authorities — the  reverse  of  the 
United  States  system  and  of  the  Australian  constitution  lately  (1900) 
completed.  The  chief  subjects  of  Federal  control  were  the  regulation 
of  trade  and  commerce ;  the  postal  system  ;  the  public  debt,  public 
property  and  borrowing  of  money  on  the  credit  of  the  Dominion  ; 
the  militia  and  all  matters  connected  with  the  local  defence  of  the 
country  ;  navigation,  shipping,  quarantine  and  the  coast  and  inland 
fisheries  ;  currency,  coinage,  banks,  weights  and  measures,  bills  and 
notes,  bankruptcy  and  insolvency  ;  copyright,  and  patents  of  inven- 
tions and  discovery  ;  Indians,  naturalization  and  aliens  ;  marriage  and 
divorce ;  customs  and  excise  duties ;  public  works,  canals,  railways 
and  penitentiaries ;  criminal  law  and  procedure. 

•  Ontario  decided  to  dispense  with  a  Council  altogether,  British  Columbia  at  a  later  date  did  the  same  and  Manitoba 
and  New  Brunswick  have  since  abolished  theirs. 


THE  CONFEDERATION  OF  THE  PROVINCES  359 

The  Provincial  Legislatures  were  to  have  control  of  certain  spe- 
cified subjects,  including  direct  taxation  ;  the  borrowing  of  money  on 
Provincial  credit ;  the  management  and  sale  of  local  public  lands  and 
of  the  wood  and  timber  thereon  ;  the  establishment,  maintenance  and 
managent  of  prisons  and  reformatories,  hospitals,  asylums  and  chari- 
table institutions  generally  ;  licences  to  saloons,  taverns,  shops  and 
auctioneers ;  certain  specified  public  works  within  the  Province  ;  the 
administration  of  justice  under  certain  jurisdictions  and  Provincial 
Courts  ;  together  with  education  and  municipal  institutions. 

Under  the  terms  of  the  Act  Ontario,  or  Upper  Canada,  has  92 
representatives  in  the  House  of  Commons,  Quebec,  or  Lower  Can- 
ada, 65,  Nova  Scotia  20,  New  Brunswick  14.  As  the  other  Provinces 
came  into  the  Union  Prince  Edward  Island  was  given  5  members, 
Manitoba  7,  British  Columbia  6  and  the  North-West  Territories 
4.  The  basis,  according  to  population,  is  that  of  Quebec  with  its  65 
members  and  a  re-arrangement  takes  place  after  each  decennial  Census. 
The  average  population  to  each  representative  is  22,688.  In  this  way 
was  settled  the  point  for  which  George  Brown  had  so  strenuously  strug- 
gled and  the  influence  of  French  Canada — if  united  from  a  racial  point 
of  view — was  left  to  depend  upon  its  comparative  population  and  not 
upon  the  arbitrary  equality  of  representation  created  by  the  Act  of 
Union  in  1841.  Fortunately  for  the  new  Dominion  a  division  along 
racial  lines  has  only  occasionally  taken  place  and  never  in  the  form  of 
fractious  hostility  to  which  politicians  of  the  earlier  period  and  the 
lesser  Union  were  too  well  accustomed. 


CHAPTER  XVIIT 
Completing  Confederation 

THE  bringing  together  of  the  old  and  historic  Provinces  of 
Upper  and  Lower  Canada,  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick 
in  a  federal  bond  was  a  difficult  and  important  task  and 
enough  in  itself  to  constitute  the  life-work  of  a  statesman.  To 
complete  this  union  by  the  acquisition  of  the  great  Northwest  and 
of  prairies  and  mountains  stretching  in  millions  of  square  miles  to 
the  far  Pacific,  was  a  work  which,  in  national  possibilities,  was 
even  greater.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  estimating  the  importance 
of  any  one  man  in  connection  with  what  may  be  termed  the  making 
of  Canada,  that  it  was  the  good  fortune  and  the  statecraft  of  Sir 
John  Macdonald  which  enabled  him  not  only  to  have  the  largest 
popular  place  and  the  chief  constructive  share  in  the  confederation 
of  the  older  Provinces,  but  also,  as  Prime  Minister,  to  preside  over  the 
admission  of  Manitoba,  the  formation  of  the  North-West  Territories 
and  the  admission  of  British  Columbia  and  Prince  Edward  Island. 

THE    STATECRAFT    OI-    SIR   JOHN    MACDONALD 

In  addition  to  this,  it  was  his  privilege  to  watch  over  and 
guide  the  early  operation  of  the  new  constitution  and  to  influence 
the  later  creation  of  a  sincere  and  powerful  national  sentiment — 
without  which  Confederation  was  simply  a  structure  built  on  shifting 
sand.  None  of  these  stages  in  expansion  or  progress  was,  however, 
of  easy  attainment.  Each  had  to  be  beaten  off  the  anvil  of  the 
fates  with  fire  and  hard  labour. 

It  could  not  have  been  without  a  shade  of  sympathetic  regret 
that  the  thoughtful  observer,  toward  the  end  of  the  sixties,  should 
360 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  3^1 

have  witnessed  the  approaching  fall  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
as  a  great  land  power  and  its  probable  subsidence  into  the  hum- 
drum existence  of  a  mere  trading  corporation  under  constitutional 
control.  Its  history  had  been  a  great  and  romantic  one,  and  though 
marred  by  occasional  acts  of  violence,  or  folly,  had  upon  the  whole 
been  of  service  to  the  Empire's  expansion  and  commerce  and  a  con-  ^ 
siderable  addition  to  its  store  of  great  traditions.  It  was  in  1862 
that  the  first  overt  steps  had  been  taken  by  the  Province  of  Canada 
to  acquire  the  North-West;  it  was  on  the  9th  of  March  1869  that 
the  final  arrangements  were  concluded  between  the  two  Governments 
and  the  Company.  Between  this  date  and  the  actual  transfer  of  the 
territory,  however,  there  intervened  a  period  of  trouble  and  per- 
plexity, of  insurrection  and  murder. 

THE    KIEL    REBELLION    OF    187O 

The  history  of  the  Riel  Rebellion  of  1870  is  a  regrettable  page 
in  Canadian  annals  and  seems  to  indicate  a  lack  of  imagination  on 
the  part  of  the  Canadian  Government  in  dealing  with  a  sensitive  and 
ignorant  population  of  whom  little  was  known  by  any  one  in 
authority,  except  it  were  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  people.  The 
latter  do  not  seem  to  have  shown  any  active  interest  in  matters  once 
the  sale  was  actually  consummated  and  their  ;^30o,ooo  assured. 
Imagination  is,  in  statesmanship,  an  all-essential,  though  not  always 
recognized,  factor  and  it  was  not  usually  lacking  in  the  policy  of 
Sir  John  Macdonald.  But  on  this  occasion  no  one  appears  to  have 
followed  the  sound  principle  of  putting  themselves  in  other  peoples' 
places  and  imagining  for  a  brief  period  what  the  feelings  of  the 
Metis,  or  Half-breeds  of  the  Red  River,  would  be  upon  hearing  of 
the  proposed  transfer  of  their  territory. 

They  were  uneducated,  could  not  speak  English,  knew  nothing 

of  constitutional  government  or  even  what  it  meant,  were  isolated  in 

the  extreme,  did  not  understand  the  relations  held  by  the  Company, 
20 


362  COMPLETING  CONFEDEkATiOM 

the  British  Government  and  the  Canadian  authorities  toward  each 
other,  and  were,  therefore,  the  easy  victims  of  deception,  the  facile 
instruments  of  any  vain  or  corrupt  agitator  who  might  rise  to  the 
surface  of  affairs  at  a  critical  juncture.  Judgment  long  after  an  event, 
when  based  upon  new  conditions  and  changed  ideas,  is  always  easy 
and  unfair,  but  in  this  case  it  would  really  seem  as  if  the  ten  or  twelve 
thousand  people,  scattered  throughout  the  region  now  known  as 
Manitoba,  should  have  received  some  ofificial  notification  and  personal 
explanation  of  the  policy  of  union  with  Canada,  its  actual  causes  and 
probable  effects.  They  had  never  asked  to  be  included  in  the  Domin- 
ion and  were  quite  content  under  the  open  and  paternal  government 
of  the  Company.  They  now  heard  rumors  of  impending  change  and 
all  the  flying  gossip  of  a  scattered  and  suspicious  population ;  while 
they  saw  with  their  own  eyes  the  corps  of  surveyors  and  road-makers 
who  so  unwisely  preceded  the  authorities  and  even  the  actual  trans- 
fer. It  is  little  wonder,  therefore,  that  though  the  Selkirk  set- 
tlers and  most  of  the  English-speaking  people  held  aloof  in  the  assu- 
rance that  nothing  very  serious  could  happen  to  them  under  the  new 
rkginte^  the  more  primitive  and  less  placid  Half-breeds  shifted  in  rest- 
less alarm  and  presently  caught  fire  under  the  unscrupulous  appeals 
of  Louis  Riel. 

CHARACTER   OF    LOUIS    RIEL 

Like  many  men  born  to  lead  in  civil  strife,  or  to  effect  objects  of 
a  socialistic  or  anarchistic  nature,  Riel  had  a  vein  of  madness  in  his 
mind.  It  was  not,  in  any  true  sense  of  the  word,  insanity,  nor  does  there 
appear  to  have  ever  been  serious  grounds  for  supposing  him  incapable 
of  controlling  his  own  actions.  It  was  the  madness  of  intense  egotism 
and  vanity,  developed  by  other  characteristics  into  a  cool,  calculating, 
unscrupulous  ambition.  The  son  of  a  white  father  and  a  Half-breed 
mother  he  had  been  educated  in  Montreal  for  the  Roman  Catholic 
priesthood  but  returned  to  Fort  Garry  without  really  taking  Orders. 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  3^3 

His  early  surroundings  had  given  him  physical  vigour,  his  education 
in  Montreal  had  given  him  fair  scholarship,  his  French  and  Indian 
blood  had  given  him  a  curious  mixture  of  qualities  in  which  oratorical 
facility  and  indifference  to  the  shedding  of  blood  were  prominent.  In 
many  respects,  therefore,  he  was  fitted  to  be  a  leader  of  the  people  at 
the  Red  River,  and  into  this  position  he  at  once  leapt.  Moderation 
at  this  juncture  would  have  made  him  a  great  and  useful  figure  in  the 
hearts  and  history  of  his  countrymen  and  have  enabled  him  to  pre- 
pare them  peacefully  for  a  union  of  which  he  must  have  clearly  under- 
stood the  nature.  And  he  might  afterwards  have  taken  a  high  poli- 
tical place  in  the  Province,  and,  perhaps,  in  the  Dominion. 

Encouraged,  however,  by  a  vague  knowledge  of  Papineau's  day 
of  power  in  French  Canada  ;  believing  that  Fort  Garry  was  too  far 
away  and  the  Canadian  people  too  indifferent  to  risk  serious  interfer- 
ence ;  hoping  from  the  opinions  of  American  residents  at  Fort  Garry 
that,  if  there  was  trouble,  the  United  States  would  intervene  ;  inspired 
by  a  passion  for  notoriety  which  some  men  mistake  for  honest  ambi- 
tion ;  he  drew  away  from  the  paths  of  moderation  and  determined  to 
found  a  new  republic  in  America.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  move- 
ment he  had  little  opposition  from  the  pure  white  population  and 
considerable  sympathy  from  the  American  element  in  it.  The  Eng- 
lish-speaking settlers  explained  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Stoughton 
Dennis,  who  came  to  them  as  chief  of  the  newly-appointed  Govern- 
or's staff,  that  they  had  not  asked  for  this  new  Dominion  Govern- 
ment, had  not  been  consulted  in  the  transfer  of  their  territory,  and 
did  not  propose  to  risk  either  their  homes,  or  their  lives,  or  their  old- 
time  friendships  in  opposing  Riel  and  his  Half-breed  followers.  If 
there  was  to  be  a  conflict — in  which  the  Indians  would  probably  take 
part — let  the  Dominion,  they  said,  establish  amongst  them  that  Gov- 
ernment which  it  had  decided  upon  without  their  opinion  being  asked 
and  they  would  obey  the  laws  and  be  good  subjects.     Until  the  new 


364  COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION 

system  was  established,  however,  they  would  take  no  risks.  To  this 
not  altogether  unreasonable  attitude  there  were  exceptions,  increas- 
ing as  time  went  on  and  as  the  position  of  Riel  became  more  violent 
and  aggressive.  These  exceptions  were  at  first  largely  made  up  of 
native  Canadians  under  the  leadership  of  Dr.  (afterwards  Sir)  John 
Christian  Schultz,  a  pioneer  in  the  trade  and  development  of  the 
country. 

It  had  been  announced  that  on  December  i,  1869,  the  new  terri- 
tory would  be  formally  transferred  to  Canada  and,  in  the  meantime, 
the  Hon.  William  McDougall,  who  had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the 
earlier  negotiations  at  London  and  the  Parliamentary  discussions  at 
Ottawa,  was  appointed  a  sort  of  Provisional  Governor  of  an  unorgan- 
ized territory.  He  was  sent  up  in  the  late  autumn  to  arrange  the 
new  constitutional  system  and  to  take  over  the  administration  of  the 
region  from  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  There  was,  of  course,  no 
railway  connection  at  that  time  with  the  West  except  by  way  of  Uni- 
ted States  territory  and  the  first  overt  act  of  rebellion  occurred  on 
October  21st  when,  under  the  inspiring  eloquence  of  Riel  and  the 
influence  of  his  vigorous  misrepresentations,  an  armed  Half-breed 
force  took  possession  of  the  highway  leading  from  the  International 
border  to  Fort  Garry  and  over  which  the  new  Governor  would  have 
to  pass.  He  was  told  he  could  not  come  beyond  the  frontier  and, 
finally,  when  he  attempted  to  make  the  journey  was  forced  by  the 
rebels  to  leave  British  territory  and  to  retire  to  Pembina,  in  the  State 
of  Dakota. 

Riel  now  took  further  active  measures.  On  *9November  3rd  he 
led  a  force  into  Fort  Garry,  dispossessed  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
and  laughed  at  their  protests ;  issued  a  manifesto  stating  that  a  popu- 
lar Convention  would  be  called  to  settle  the  government  of  the  coun- 
try ;  published  a  rebel  paper  named  the  New  Nation  and  got 
practically  all  the  military  stores  available  ;  formed,  early  in  January, 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  367 

1870,  a  Provisional  Government  of  which  he  was  President,  a  clever 
Irishman    named    O'Donoghue,    Secretary-Treasurer,    and  Ambrose 
Lepine,  the  best  military  head  amongst  the  rebels  of  the  moment, 
Adjutant-General.       Meanwhile,   Mr.   McDougall    made   the  serious 
mistake  of  believing  that  the    intended  legal  transfer  of    the  terri- 
tory had  actually  taken    place  on   December  ist  and  of  issuing  what 
purported  to  be  a  Royal  Proclamation  dealing  with  the  existing  situa- 
tion.    When  it  was  found  that  the  transfer  had  not   really  occurred 
this  document  only  served  to  intensify  the  complication  and  to  make 
McDougall's  position  untenable  as  well  as  intolerable.     There  was 
nothing  for  him  to  do  but  return  home.     Then,  Dr.  Schultz  formed  a 
body  of  half-armed   Canadians  to  defy  the   rebel    Government  and 
after  a  brave  resistance  was  over-powered  and  imprisoned  at   Fort 
Garry  with  all  his  followers.     The  details  of  his  privations  there,  the 
imminent  risk  of  death  as  a  warning  to  others  in  the   Settlement 
which  he  is  known  to  have  been  in,  his  escape  through  the  help  of  a 
sick  wife  and  by  the  aid  of  a  smuggled  file,  his  climb  over  high  walls 
with  an  injured  leg,  and  his  journey  through  great  drifts  of  snow  and 
in  a  bewildering  storm  to  a  place  of  partial  safety,  read  like  part  of 
some  romance  of  another  age.     Still  more  interesting  was  his  subse- 
quent journey  on  foot  and  snow-shoe  over  seven   thousand  miles  of 
solitude,  snow  and  frozen  rivers  to  Duluth,  in  the  United  States,  where 
the  tall,  gaunt  and  emaciated  figure  of  the  weary  and  starving  Cana- 
dian commanded  general  sympathy.     After  a  brief  rest  he  journeyed 
by  train  to  Ontario  and  there  speedily  aroused  the  public  to  a  sense 
of  the  real  state  of  affairs  and  the  necessity  of  strong  and  active 
interference  if  the  great  country  of  the  West  was  to  be  held  by  the 
Dominion. 

But  a  good  many  things  happened  before,  or  during,  this  period. 
Donald  A.  Smith  arrived  at  Fort  Garry  as  a  special  Commissioner  of  the 
Dominion   Government  and  the  future   Lord   Strathcona  and  Mount 


368  COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION 

Royal  exercised  in  his  negotiations  a  high  degree  of  tact  and  concilia- 
tion. Eventually,  he  persuaded  Riel  to  call  his  promised  Convention 
to  consider  the  future  condition  of  the  country.  It  met  on  January  25; 
1870,  and  passed  a  Bill  of  Rights  formulating  the  demands  of  the 
Half-breeds,  which  Mr.  Smith  undertook  to  submit  to  the  Ottawa 
Government.  At  the  same  time  he  asked  for  the  appointment  of 
Delegates  to  accompany  him  to  the  Dominion  capital.  This  was 
duly  done  and  all  might  have  possibly  gone  well  had  not  the  Scott 
murder  taken  place  soon  after.  At  Kildonan,  not  far  from  Fort 
Garry,  a  meeting  of  loyalists  was  being  held  and  a  son  of  John 
Sutherland — afterwards  a  Senator  of  Canada — was  shot  dead  by  one 
of  Riel's  spies  as  the  latter  was  trying  to  escape  from  the  gathering. 
On  their  way  home  from  the  meeting  some  of  the  other  loyalists  were 
captured  and,  amongst  them,  a  young  Canadian  named  Thomas  Scott. 
He  was  a  man  of  excellent  character  and  an  Oraneeman  and  this 
latter  fact,  no  doubt,  had  something  to  do  in  further  inflaming  the 
ignorant  minds  of  the  Half-breeds.  Despite  the  protests  of  Mr.  Smith 
and  the  intercession  of  some  of  the  French  priests,  he  was  shot  by  order 
of  Riel  on  March  4th,  after  a  court-martial,  which  was  the  veriest 
travesty  of  justice. 

WARLIKE    PREPARATIONS 

Of  course,  nothing  could  now  be  done  by  conciliation,  although 
Bishop  Tache  returned  from  Rome  soon  afterwards  and  exercised  his 
wide  influence  in  preventing  any  more  ebulitions  of  similar  violence. 
The  murder  of  Scott  aroused  Ontario,  where  Schultz  had  just  arrived, 
and  all  the  Governments  concerned — British,  Canadian  and  Provin- 
cial— saw  that  efl"ective  and  immediate  steps  must  be  taken  to  sup- 
press the  rising.  An  expeditionary  force  was  at  once  arranged  under 
command  of  Colonel  (afterwards  Field  Marshal,  Viscount)  Wolseley, 
who  was  then  at  the  head  of  some  regular  troops  in  Ontario.  It  was 
composed  of  the   ist  Battalion  of  the    60th  Rifles,  350  strong,  with 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  369 

twenty  men  of  the  Royal  Artillery  and  four  seven-pounder  guns, 
twenty  men  of  the  Royal  Engineers  and  suitable  Hospital  and  Service 
corps — making  in  all  400  regular  troops.  Two  Battalions  of  Militia 
from  Ontario  and  Quebec  under  Lieutenant-Colonels  S.  P.  Jarvis  and 
L.  A.  Casault,  making  700  more  men,  were  readily  obtained  as  volun- 
teers. In  May,  1870,  this  force  left  Toronto  to  pass  over  more 
than  a  thousand  miles  of  wilderness  and  broken  water-stretches  and 
to  endure  much  of  hardship  and  severe  labour.  At  Sault  Ste  Marie, 
owing  to  American  regulations  and  the  refusal  to  allow  British  armed 
troops  upon  the  soil  of  the  United  States,  the  expedition  had  to  leave 
its  boats  and  carry  all  supplies  and  effects  three  miles  around  the 
rapids  on  the  Canadian  side — where,  at  the  end  of  the  century,  is  to 
be  found  a  canal  which  eclipses  that  of  the  Americans. 

On  August  24th,  amid  rain  and  gloom,  the  expedition  made  its  way 
up  the  Red  River  and  found  itself  nearing  the  scene  of  rebellion.  Filled 
with  thoughts  of  conflict  and  hope  of  brilliant  success,  the  men  were 
greatly  disappointed,  as  soldiers,  to  find  that  Riel  had  fled  like  his  earlier 
predecessors,  Papineau  and  Mackenzie,  and  had  left  them  merely  the 
skin  of  a  squeezed  orange.  From  every  other  standpoint,  however, 
than  that  of  the  ambitious  soldier,  or  hopeful  volunteer,  the  result 
was  for  the  best  and,  with  Colonel  Wolseley's  march  into  Fort  Garry 
the  insurrection  closed  without  leaving  any  seriously  bitter  memories 
behind  save  those  surrounding  the  sad  death  of  young  Scott.  Mr. 
Donald  A.  Smith  was  called  upon  by  the  Military  Commander  to 
assume  control  of  civil  matters  until  the  new  Lieutenant-Governor 
could  arrive  and  the  constitution  be  formally  inaugurated  along  the 
line  of  Mr.  Howe's  instructions  to  Governor  McDougall  many  months 
before.* 

This  policy — which  might  have  averted  the  insurrection  had  it 
been  properly  placed  before  all  the   people   of   the   Settlement   at 

♦t^tt^r  from  the  Secretary  of  State  at  Ottawa,  dated  7th  December,  1869,  but  not  made  public  until  January  so,  1870. 


370  COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION 

an  earlier  period — included  the  declaration  that  civil  and  religious 
liberties  and  the  privileges  of  the  whole  population  would  be  sacredly 
preserved ;  that  properties,  rights  and  equities,  as  enjoyed  under  the 
Company's  rule,  would  be  maintained  ;  that  a  liberal  system  in  the 
granting  of  titles  to  land  now  occupied  by  settlers  would  be  pursued  ; 
that  all  classes  of  the  residents  would  be  fully  and  fairly  represented 
in  the  Government ;  that  municipal  self-government  would  be  at  once 
established  and  the  country  ruled  by  a  constitution  based  upon  British 
laws  and  precedents  and  practices.  On  July  15th,  1870,  the  Province 
was  duly  constituted  by  Royal  and  Parliamentary  enactment  with  Mr. 
(afterwards  Sir)  Adams  G.  Archibald  as  its  first  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor.* An  Executive  Council  of  not  less  than  five  persons  was  to 
be  appointed,  with  a  Legislative  Council  of  seven  members  which 
was  to  be  increased  to  twelve  after  four  years,  and  a  Legislative 
Assembly  of  twenty-four  members,  elected  to  represent  certain  elec- 
toral districts  as  constituted  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor.  The  dura- 
tion of  the  Legislature  and  its  functions  were  to  be  controlled  by  the 
same  provisions  as  applied  in  the  British  North  America  Act  to  the 
other  Provinces.  Either  the  French  or  English  language  could  be 
used  in  debates  and  official  records.  It  may  be  added  that  the  Legis- 
lative Council  was  abolished  in  1876  and  that  the  number  of  members 
in  the  Assembly  was  afterwards  raised  to  forty. 

The  first  organized  Ministry  in  the  infant  Province  was  consti- 
tuted on  September  16,  1870,  with  the  Hon.  M.  A.  Girard  as 
Premier.  Of  the  characters  in  th^  strife  which  preceded  this  constitu- 
tional commencement  Louis  Riel  vanished  from  sight  for  a  few  years  of 
restless  life  in  the  States  to  the  south  ;  Colonel  Wolseley,  after  coquet- 
ting for  a  brief  moment  with  the  Lieutenant-Governorship  left  Canada 
to  participate  in  many  campaigns  and  become  Commander-in-Chief 
of  the   British  Army  ;  Dr.  Schultz  went  into  politics  and  Parliament 

*  Mr,  McDougall  was  simply  a  Governor  of  unorganized  territories  and  bis  tenure  of  a  provisional  nature. 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  371 

and  lived  to  be  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  Province  in  which  he  had 
played  so  important  a  pioneer  part ;  Lieutenant-Colonels  Jarvis  and 
Casault  were  decorated  with  the  C.  M.  G.  and  the  former  rose  to  a 
good  position  in  the  British  army ;  while  William  McDougall  lived 
an  unsatisfactory  and  upon  the  whole  unsuccessful  political  career 
which  ended  with  defeat  in  his  candidature  for  Parliament  in  1882  and 
1887.  Meantime,  many  of  the  troops  settled  in  the  Province,  other 
settlers  came  as  a  result  of  liberal  land  laws  and  Manitoba  began  to 
slowly  and  steadily  progress. 

OTHER    PROVINCES    ENTER    CONFEDERATION 

On  July  20th,  1871,  British  Columbia  entered  Confederation 
and  thus  followed  the  example  of  Manitoba — with  the  difference  of 
coming  in  peace  rather  than  in  conflict.  Its  history,  up  to  this  time, 
had  been  largely  one  of  mining  excitements  and  of  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  trade  and  government.  In  1858  it  had  been  made  a  dis- 
tinct colony  for  purposes  of  administration  during  the  gold  discove- 
ries of  the  period.  In  1866,  Vancouver  Island  and  the  Mainland  had 
been  united,  with  a  Lieutenant-Governor  and  a  Legislative  Council — 
the  latter  passing  a  Resolution  favourable  to  Confederation,  in  1867, 
which  was  disapproved  of  by  its  Governor.  On  January  29th  of  the  fol- 
lowing yeara  large  meeting  was  held  in  Victoria  and  a  movement  started 
by  Amor  de  Cosmos,  J.  F.  McCreight,  John  Robson,  Robert  Beaven, 
Hugh  Nelson,  H.  P.  P.  Crease  and  other  afterward  prominent  citizens, 
to  bring  about  union  with  the  Dominion.  The  chief  opponent  of  the 
policy  was  Dr.  Helmcken,  who  seems  to  have  had  a  strong  annexa- 
tion sentiment  and  to  have  been  supported  by  American  settlers  who 
deemed  the  chief  interest  of  the  Colony  to  be  with  the  States  to  the 
south.  In  March,  1870,  a  great  debate  took  place  in  the  Council 
and  a  favourable  Resolution  based  upon  arrangements  proposed  by 
the  new  Governor,  Mr.  Anthony  Musgrave,  was  carried.  Messrs. 
Helmcken,  Carrall  and  J.  W.  Trutch  were  then  sent  to  Ottawa  and 


372  COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION 

the  terms  finally  settled — the  principal  item  of  discussion  being  a 
pledge  by  the  Dominion  Government  to  construct  a  trans-continental 
railway.  As  the  people  of  British  Columbia  well  knew  it  was  only 
by  such  means  that  the  Province  could  be  brought  into  the  Dominion 
in  any  other  than  the  barest  technical  and  territorial  sense. 

The  measure  was  hotly  debated  in  the  House  of  Commons  at 
Ottawa  because  of  the  great  responsibilities  assumed  in  the  proposed 
railway  construction.  But  it  was  eventually  carried  and  there  came 
into  the  now  giant-like  proportions  of  the  Dominion  a  Province  whose 
mountains  were  veined  and  tunnelled  with  gold  and  other  precious 
metals  ;  whose  vast  coal  preserves  were  destined  to  supply  the  whole 
Pacific  slope ;  whose  mighty  peaks  were  clothed  in  forests  from  the 
top  of  their  rugged  sides  to  the  rushing  rivers  at  the  bottom  ;  whose 
streams  and  coast  waters  teemed  with  fish  or  sands  of  gold  ;  whose 
fertile  acres  in  certain  sections  grew  some  of  the  finest  fruits  known 
to  the  world ;  whose  climate  is  a  boast  to  its  people  and  a  pleasure  to 
its  visitors. 

Since  1864,  when  the  Government  of  little  Prince  Edward  Island 
had  precipitated  the  varied  problems  of  all  the  Provinces  into  a 
common  melting-pot  through  its  proposal  to  Nova  Scotia  and  New 
Brunswick  to  discuss  a  maritime  union,  trouble  and  perplexity  had 
been  its  lot.  Its  Delegates  had  participated  in  the  Conference  at 
Quebec,  but  were  unable  to  carry  the  Seventy-two  Resolutions  through 
a  Legislature  which,  by  twenty-three  votes  to  five,  declared  that  join- 
ing the  union  would  prove  "politically,  commercially  and  financially 
disastrous  to  the  rights  and  interests  of  its  people."  Their  position 
was,  indeed,  a  somewhat  peculiar  one.  Without  public  lands,  mines, 
or  forests  they  had  nothing  to  supplement  the  small  allowance  pro- 
posed by  the  Dominion  Government ;  while  the  insular  situation  of 
the  Province  would,  they  believed,  deprive  it  of  all  practical  share  in 
Federal  expenditures  upon  railways,  canals  and   other  great  public 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  373 

works  to  which  they  would  have  to  contribute  a  due  proportion  of 
taxation.  They  would  also  be  overshadowed  and  their  place  in  Con- 
federation, it  was  claimed,  be  insignificant  and  unenviable. 

By  1873,  however,  the  abrogation  of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  had 
deprived  the  Province  of  what  had  been  its  best  market,  up  to  that 
time,  and  had  almost  ruined  its  large  fishing  interests.  Exhausted 
forests  had  killed  a  prosperous  ship-building  trade  and  railway  com- 
plications had  arisen  which  involved  the  Province  to  an  extent  beyond 
its  means ;  while  the  failure  to  effect  any  change  in  the  land-rent 
system  of  the  Island  seemed  to  indicate  that  this  vital  question  would 
never  be  settled  until  it  had  obtained  Dominion  backing  and  support. 
Early  in  1873,  therefore,  overtures  were  made  to  Ottawa  and  Messrs. 
R.  P.  Haythorne  and  David  Laird  sent  as  Delegates  to  try  and  make 
arrangements.  After  repeated  discussions,  terms  of  union  were 
signed  by  Sir  John  Macdonald,  the  Hon.  H.  L.  Langevin,  the  Hon. 
Joseph  Howe  and  the  Hon.  Charles  Tupper  for  the  Dominion  and 
by  Messrs.  Haythorne  and  Laird  for  the  Province.  After  a  general 
election,  in  which  the  arrangement  was  declared  unsatisfactory,  a 
change  of  local  Government  took  place  and  Messrs.  J.  C.  Pope,  T. 
H.  Haviland  and  G.  W.  Howlan  were  sent  to  Ottawa  to  obtain  better 
terms.  These  they  finally  got  and,  on  July  i,  1873,  the  Province 
entered  Confederation.  The  much  troubled  land  question  was  settled 
by  an  Act  of  the  Dominion  Parliament  which  compelled  the  proprie- 
tors of  large  estates  to  accept  an  equitable  price  on  the  award  of 
Arbitrators  chosen  by  the  Government,  the  landlords  and  the  tenants 
respectively — the  purchase  money  being  paid  by  funds  allowed  to  the 
Province  under  the  terms  of  Confederation — and  the  lands  resold  to 
the  people  at  cost  and  upon  easy  terms  of  payment. 

While  this  process  of  expansion  was  going  on  the  vast,  unorgan- 
ized, and  almost  unknown  regions  between  Manitoba  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  between  the  borders  of  the  United  States  and  the 


374  COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION 

Arctic  Ocean,  were  gradually  coming  into  constitutional  form  and 
shapeas  well  as  into  popular  knowledge.  On  April  12,  1876,  Kee- 
watin,  with  its  area  of  756,000  square  miles,  was  organized  into  a 
District  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Mani- 
toba. On  May  17,  1882,  Assiniboia,  Saskatchewan,  Alberta  and 
Athabasca,  with  a  combined  area  of  over  500,000  square  miles,  were 
constituted  under  a  Lieutenant-Governor,  with  his  capital  at  Regina 
and  with  institutions  which  slowly  developed  until,  in  1898,  they 
might  be  described  as  fully  self-governing.  A  Lieutenant-Governor 
and  Crown-appointed  Council ;  an  Advisory  Council  and  four  mem- 
bers chosen  from  an  elected  Assembly  of  twenty-two  members  ;  an 
Executive  Council  and  Legislative  Assembly  with  full  Provincial 
powers  except  as  to  borrowing  money  and  controlling  Crown-lands  ; 
complete  responsible  government  in  1898  ;  were  the  various  stages  in 
this  progress.  Mr.  F.  W.  G.  Haultain  was  the  leading  figure  in  this 
system  of  political  growth  and  is  now  (1900)  Premier  of  a  steadily 
growing  population  in  what  is  termed  the  North-West  Territories. 
Meanwhile,  on  October  2,  1895,  much  of  the  still  unorganized  far 
northern  territory  of  over  a  million  square  miles  had  been  formed 
into  the  Districts  of  Mackenzie,  Ungava  and  Franklin  and  placed 
under  the  control  of  the  Regina  Government.  In  1897  there  was 
further  change  and  the  District  of  Yukon  was  created  and  placed 
under  the  same  jurisdiction.  As  the  blinding  glare  of  the  gold  dis- 
coveries loomed  above  the  horizon,  it  was,  however,  deemed  desira- 
ble to  take  this  region  under  Dominion  management  and  on  June  13, 
1898,  this  was  done. 

So  far,  this  steady  expansion  of  the  new  Dominion  had  been 
great  and  successful.  The  amount  of  tactful  skill  and  political 
diplomacy  required  for  such  varied  and  continuous  negotiation  and 
arrangement  can  be  only  estimated  from  this  sketch  of  actual  events. 
But  it  is  not  difficult  to  read  between  the  lines  and  to  see  how  much 


I 


I 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  yn 

of  care  and  anxiety  and  labour  must  have  gone  into  the  completing 
of  Confederation.  The  North-West  troubles,  the  Indians,  the  railway 
question  of  the  West,  the  land  problem  of  the  island  garden  of  the 
Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  were  only  a  few  of  the  more  prominent  issues. 
Sir  John  Macdonald,  however,  had  able  assistants  in  Tupper  and 
Tilley,  Rose  and  Hincks  and  Cartier  and,  although  mistakes  were 
made,  it  is  well  to  fully  appreciate  the  constructive  labour  and  skill 
required  to  carry  out  the  all-important  political  and  constitutional 
expansion  of  this  period. 

SECESSION    MOVEMENT    IN    NOVA    SCOTIA 

One  great  difficulty  connected  with  an  original  Province  of  the 
Union  had  to  be  faced  and  disposed  of  in  1868-9.  It  was  the  secession 
movement  in  Nova  Scotia  which  was  created,  guided  and  controlled 
by  Joseph  Howe.  Indirectly  connected  with  it  was  an  event  which 
occurred  on  April  7,  1868 — the  assassination  of  D'Arcy  McGee. 
The  eloquent  Irishman  who  had  done  so  much  to  bring  his  fellow- 
countrymen  into  support  and  sympathy  for  the  federal  principle  and 
its  subsequent  application,  and  whose  whole  later  career — with  a 
single  exception — had  been  one  of  conciliation  in  politics  as  well  as 
of  innate  courtesy  in  manner,  had  left  the  House  after  delivering  a 
bright  and  patriotic  speech  upon  the  desirability  of  patience  and 
kindly  treatment  in  connection  with  Nova  Scotian  matters.  He  was 
just  entering  his  own  door  when  a  member  of  the  Fenian  Brother- 
hood stepped  up  behind  and  shot  him  dead.  The  exception  referred 
to  had  been  the  Fenians,  whom  he  greatly  detested,  of  whose  secrets 
he  knew  much  and  who  had  thus  dogged  him  to  his  death.  Rewards 
amounting  to  $20,000  were  offered  for  the  capture  of  the  murderer  and, 
finally,  a  man  named  Whelan  was  arrested,  convicted  and  hanged. 

Meanwhile,  repeal  of  the  Union  became  the  watchword  of  Nova 
Scotia,  the  clarion  call  of  Howe  and  his  associates.  In  the  elections 
following  Confederation,  Dr.  Tupper  had  been  the  only  non-Repealer 


378  COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION 

elected  to  the  Commons,  while  only  two  of  the  same  stripe  had  been 
returned  to  the  Provincial  Assembly.  Howe  was  supreme  and  the 
feeling  of  the  people  was  extremely  bitter.  They  believed  they  had 
been  carried  into  the  Union  by  a  trick  ;  they  knew  that  no  chance  to 
vote  upon  it  had  been  given  them.  Resolutions  were  passed  by  the 
Legislature  demanding  the  right  to  secede  and  Howe  was  sent  with 
a  Delegation  and  immense  petitions  to  lay  the  matter  at  the  foot  of 
the  Throne  and  to  use  every  influence  of  persuasion  or  threat  to 
induce  the  Imperial  Parliament  to  grant  the  right  of  repeal.  To 
London,  also,  went  Dr.  Tupper  by  request  of  Sir  John  Macdonald  and 
the  long  drawn  battle  of  the  two  Provincial  leaders  was  thus  transferred 
from  the  small  arena  of  Nova  Scotia  to  the  Halls  of  Westminster. 

Naturally  and  inevitably,  Howe  was  vanquished,  though  he  had 
the  ready  support  of  such  Little  Englanders  as  John  Bright,  and  he 
returned  home  with  nothing  before  him  but  a  hopeless  rebellion  which 
could  have  been  easily  stirred  up,  or  the  acceptance  of  a  compromise 
already  suggested  by  Dr.  Tupper  and  under  which  the  Province  might 
be  given  better  terms.  The  fate  of  Nova  Scotia  was  more  truly  in 
the  hollow  of  his  hand  than  had  ever  been  that  of  Lower  Canada  in 
the  grasp  of  Papineau.  Fortunately,  moderation  and  good  sense  won 
the  day,  assisted  by  a  visit  to  Halifax  of  Sir  John  Macdonald,  Dr. 
Tupper  and  other  leaders.  The  result  was  helped,  also,  by  the 
sufferings  of  the  fisher-folk  from  a  very  severe  season  and  by  the 
money  and  provisions  which  poured  into  the  affected  districts  from 
generous-minded  people  in  the  other  Provinces.  In  the  end  matters 
were  settled  quietly  and  the  Dominion  Government  agreed  to  make^ 
itself  responsible  for  a  larger  portion  of  the  Provincial  debt,  to  pay  a 
yearly  subsidy  of  $82,698  for  ten  years  and  to  render  compensation 
for  certain  losses  in  revenue  resulting  from  Confederation. 

Howe  did  his  part  in  arranging  these   negotiations,  in  patrioti- 
cally conciliating  the  people  to  the  new  and  inevitable  conditions,  and 


COMPLETING  CONFEDERATION  379 

In  carrying  the  Province  for  the  settlement.  He  even  took  a  seat  in 
the  Dominion  Government  and  four  years  later  accepted  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governorship of  his  native  Province  during  the  month  in 
which  his  flame  of  life  was  flickering  towards  extinction.  But  the 
brightness  of  life  had  left  him  with  the  loss  of  public  sympathy  and 
personal  affection  which  followed  upon  his  acceptance  of  Confedera- 
tion. The  strength  of  reason  and  necessity  might  lead  the  people  of 
Nova  Scotia  to  accept  and  politically  support  him  in  the  change,  but 
the  instinct  of  affection,  the  influence  of  heart  to  heart,  which  had 
made  him  their  idol  seemed  to  be  gone  forever.  He  had  fallen  from 
his  pedestal  in  the  minds  of  the  people  and  no  amount  of  honest 
belief  in  duty,  or  the  sincere  consciousness  that  he  was  right,  appears 
to  have  availed  in  preserving  to  Howe  the  old  vigour  of  his  life  and 
action.  On  June  i,  1873,  this  extraordinary  man  passed  away,  leav- 
ing a  record  of  greatness  in  a  small  sphere  which  makes  the  student 
of  history  regret  that  the  wider  realms  of  achievement  had  not  been 
open  for  him  to  share  in  and  to  wonder  what  high  place  he  might 
have  attained  in  the  Dominion,  or  the  Empire,  had  not  that  fatal  mis- 
take of  opposing  Confederation  been  originally  made. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

The  Treaty  of  Washington 

FOLLOWING  the  abrogation  of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  in  1866, 
there  had  been  for  some  years  no  definite  arrangement  with  the 
United  States  respecting  either  fisheries  or  trade,  and  this  had 
given  a  natural  impetus  to  chances  of  international  complication  and 
trouble.  The  feeling  between  the  two  countries  was  distinctly 
unfriendly,  as  was  to  be  expected  from  the  deliberate  action  of  the 
United  States  in  refusing  to  continue  or  even  discuss  reciprocity ; 
from  its  slack  policy  concerning  the  Fenian  raids  and  the  frequent 
expression  of  a  desire  by  the  Republic  to  acquire  possession  of  the 
Provinces ;  from  the  general  belief  in  the  United  States  that  British 
America  had  sympathized  with  the  South  in  the  Civil  War  and  should 
be  made  responsible,  in  some  way,  for  this  as  well  as  for  the  alleged 
unfriendly  policy  of  England  at  the  same  juncture. 

ATTEMPTS    TO    RENEW    THE    RECIPROCITY    TREATY 

Attempts  were  made  on  the  part  of  the  British  Provinces  in  1866 
and  1869 — two  years  after  Confederation — to  renew  the  Reciprocity 
Treaty,  and  when,  finally,  the  Alabama  Claims  dispute  precipitated 
matters  at  issue  between  Great  Britain  and  the  Republic  it  was  hoped 
and  believed  in  Canada  that  the  High  Joint  Commission  which  was 
appointed  early  in  1871  to  try  and  arrange  a  treaty  of  peace  and  set- 
tlement, would  include  in  the  desired  result  a  consideration  of  trade 
questions  and  Fenian  raid  indemnities  as  well  as  of  the  fishery  difficulties 
on  the  Atlantic  which  had  recently  developed.  The  Commissioners 
included  Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  Earl  de   Grey  and  Ripon,  Sir  John 

Macdonald  and  Mr.  Hamilton  Fish,  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Republic. 
380 


THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON  381 

These  were  the  men  who  chiefly  moulded  the  policy  and  con- 
trolled the  details  of  the  negotiations.  Sir  S.  Northcote,  who  died 
twenty  years  later  as  Earl  of  Iddesleigh  and  a  most  respected  Con- 
servative leader,  was,  even  at  this  time,  a  well-known  figure  in  politics. 
But  he  owed  his  appointment  on  this  Commission  primarily  to 
a  diplomatic  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Gladstone  Government 
to  hold  in  check  possible  future  criticism  by  the  Opposition. 
Earl  de  Grey,  who  afterwards  became  Viceroy  of  India  and  Mar- 
quess of  Ripon,  was  a  man  of  high  character  and  attainments, 
but  without  any  strong  Imperial  sentiment.  He  was  tinctured,  in  fact, 
with  the  Manchester  School  feeling  of  that  time,  that  Colonies,  what- 
ever their  value,  were  not  worth  the  final  arbitrament  of  a  great 
war. 

A    DIFFICULT    POSITION 

It  must  have  been,  and  we  know  now  it  was,  with  a  heavy  and  doubt- 
ful heart  that  Sir  John  Macdonald  accepted  on  behalf  of  Canada  a  place 
amongst  British  Commissioners  controlled  by  such  conditions,  and  by 
the  very  slightly  disguised  hope  on  the  part  of  their  own  Govern- 
ment that  they  would  bring  back  a  Treaty  of  some  kind  and  even  at 
great  sacrifice.  The  full  details  of  these  memorable  negotiations  were 
not  known  at  the  time,  and  had  to  be  concealed  even  when  the  Canadian 
Premier  and  H  igh  Commissioner  stood  before  the  bar  of  his  own  Parlia- 
ment in  defence  of  the  Treaty,  and  of  himself,  and  made  one  of  the 
great  speeches  of  his  political  life.  What  he  had  to  contend  with  in  the 
Conference  from  unexpected  indifference  on  the  part  of  the  other 
British  Commissioners,  or  from  expected  hostility  on  the  part  of  its 
American  members,  we  now  understand  from  his  private  correspon- 
dence with  the  members  of  the  Canadian  Government,  as  published 
in  Mr.  Pope's  Memoirs  in  1894.  At  the  formal  meetings  of  the  Com- 
mission and  in  the  more  frequent  informal  gatherings  of  its  members 

he  stood  for  Canadian  rights  and  for  justice  to  Canadian  interests. 
21 


382  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON 

Reciprocity  in  trade  or  tariffs  it  was  soon  found  impossible  to 
attain,  and  this  was,  of  course,  a  matter  in  which  Great  Britain  was  not 
directly  concerned  and  which  the  United  States  had  a  perfect  right 
to  discuss  or  not  as  pleased  it.  But  the  Fenian  raids  indemnity  was 
a  different  thing.  Canada  had  suffered  much  in  the  alarm  of  its  citi- 
zens, in  the  death  of  its  brave  sons  defending  their  soil  against  wan- 
ton aggression,  in  the  temporary  paralysis  of  business,  in  the  expen- 
diture of  millions  of  money.  There  was  absolutely  no  doubt  as  to 
the  indifference  displayed  by  American  authorities  regarding  the  inva- 
sion and  as  to  all  the  preliminary  drilling  and  arrangements  extending 
over  many  months  of  loud-tongued  preparation.  There  was  no  doubt, 
also,  of  its  responsibility  in  a  national  sense  for  the  injury  thus 
done  to  a  friendly  neighbour — an  injury  as  great  in  comparison 
with  population  and  wealth  as  that  of  the  Alabama  to  United 
States  interests. 

In  the  earlier  negotiations  for  a  treaty  the  Fenian  raids  had  been 
referred  to  by  the  Canadian  Government  and  the  hope  expressed  that 
its  claims  against  the  United  States  for  "  negligence  and  want  of  due 
diligence  "  in  connection  with  the  invasion  would  be  considered  and 
adjusted  at  the  proposed  Conference.  The  Imperial  Government 
agreed  to  this  but,  owing  to  the  indefinite  phraseology  of  the  corre- 
spondence which  followed  with  the  Republic,  the  High  Commissioners 
for  the  United  States  refused  to  have  anything  to  do  with  the  subject 
when  the  Commission  finally  met  at  Washington.  They  declared 
that  the  matter  did  not  come  within  the  scope  of  the  original  commu- 
nication of  the  British  Minister  and  added,  in  words  quite  compre- 
hensible to  those  who  understood  the  influence  of  the  Irish  vote  in 
American  politics,  that  "  the  claims  did  not  commend  themselves  to 
their  favour."  The  end  of  it  all  was  that  the  British  Government 
assented  to  their  exclusion  from  the  consideration  of  the  High  Com- 
mission and  eventually  consented  to  guarantee  a  loan  of  ^2,500,000 


THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON  38J 

for  the  construction  of  the  Inter-Colonial  Railway  and  as  an  indemnity 
to  Canada  for  its  losses  in  the  raids. 

The  chief  Canadian  question  before  the  Commission  was  that  of 
the  Atlantic  Fisheries  and  it  was  this,  also,  which  caused  the  most 
trouble  to  England  and  alarm  to  the  British  Commissioners.  Upon 
the  Alabama  Claims  they  had  practically  resolved  to  surrender  before 
meeting  in  conference  at  all  and  the  problem  was  merely  how  to  lower 
the  bill  of  damages  and  keep  it  within  reason.  But  when  it  came  to 
the  Canadian  question  both  the  British  Government  and  the  Com- 
missioners found  that  they  had  to  deal  with  the  Dominion  and,  espe- 
cially, with  its  keen  and  vigorous  representative  upon  the  Commission. 
There  was  need  of  a  strong  defensive  hand  in  the  matter.  The 
Americans  knew  what  they  wanted  and  very  soon  came  to  know,  also, 
the  weakness  of  their  foreign  colleagues  and  to  play  with  diplomatic 
adroitness  upon  the  British  desire  for  peace  and  entire  misapprehen- 
sion of  the  character  of  United  States  politics. 

DISCUSSION    OF    THE    FISHERIES   QUESTION 

The  issue  turned  upon  the  interpretation  of  existing  Treaties  and 
seems  to  have  been  a  very  clear  one  in  reality.  In  1783  the  Treaty 
of  Versailles,  or  Paris,  recognized  certain  privileges  regarding  the 
fishing  of  American  citizens  in  Canadian  or  British  waters.  When 
the  value  of  the  Atlantic  fisheries  became  better  known  disputes  arose 
and  the  Treaty  of  Ghent  after  the  War  of  181 2  did  not  attempt  to 
dispose  of  these  controversies  as  to  the  interpretation  of  the  preceding 
Treaty.  Great  Britain  afterwards  took  the  ground  that  the  war  had 
abrogated  all  American  rights  whatever  excepting  those  of  interna- 
tional courtesy  and,  during  the  years  181 5,  1816  and  181 7,  a  number 
of  American  vessels  were  seized  for  attempting  to  assert  the  claim  to 
privileges  granted  by  the  original  Treaty. 

Various  negotiations  were  held  and,  finally,  the  Convention  of 
1 8 18   was    signed  at    London   on    October    20th,    by   which    Great 


384  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON 

Britain  granted  the  liberty  to  fish  in  certain  defined  waters  and 
to  dry  and  cure  fish  at  certain  specified  places,  in  return  for  a  renun- 
ciation "forever",  by  the  United  States,  of  the  right  to  fish  within 
three  marine  miles  of  any  of  the  coasts,  bays,  creeks  or  harbours 
not  included  in  the  specified  waters.  No  language  could  be  more 
clear  than  the  terms  of  this  Treaty,  yet,  during  succeeding  years 
frequent  attempts  were  made  — some  by  violence — to  infringe  its 
conditions  and  to  make  free  use  of  the  fisheries.  Various  vessels 
were  seized  and  much  irritation  caused.  Then  came  the  Reciprocity 
Treaty  of  1854  by  which  the  inshore  fisheries  were  thrown  open  to 
Americans  in  return  for  the  free  exchange  of  the  natural  products  of 
the  Provinces  and  the  Republic.  The  abrogation  of  the  Treaty  in 
1866  threw  the  Britsh  Government  back  upon  the  arrangement  of 
18 1 8,  made  the  equipment  of  a  marine  protective  force  necessary  and 
renewed  the  precedent  condition  of  irritation — despite  an  attempt  to 
compromise  the  matter,  by  an  issue  of  licenses  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  new  Dominion,  which  failed  owing  to  the  refusal  of  the  Amer- 
ican fishermen  to  accept  either  leave  or  license  and  their  evident 
determination  to  fish  by  force. 

The  only  thing  Canada  could  now  do  was  to  assert  its  rights 
under  the  Convention  of  18 18  and,  accordingly,  the  license  system 
was  done  away  with,  after  consultation  with  the  Imperial  Govern- 
ment, and  a  small  fleet  of  cruisers  was  prepared  and  chartered  in 
1870  for  the  defence  of  the  fisheries.  Collisions  followed,  more 
American  vessels  were  seized,  angry  diplomatic  notes  went  from 
Washington  to  London,  the  American  press  stormed  at  Canada,  and, 
at  the  time  of  the  meeting  of  the  High  Commission  events  seemed 
to  be  pressing  towards  a  warlike  solution.  All  through  the  ensuing 
deliberations  there  were,  on  the  part  of  the  British  Commissioners, 
evidences  of  fear  that  if  the  issue  was  not  settled  by  a  treaty  some 


THE  HON.  F.  W.  G.  HAULTAIN,  M.L.A 
Prime  Minister  of  the  North  West  Territoriei 


THE  HON.  JOHN  NORQUAY 

Premiei-  of  Manitoba,  1878^7 


1 

^ 

i 

^L. 

^ 

THE  HON.  THOMAS  GREENWAY 
Premier  of  Manitoba.  1888-99 


THE  HON.  HUGH  JOHN  MACDONALD,  Q.C. 
Premier  of  Manitoba  in  1900 


THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON  387 

such  result  would  follow.  Sir  John  Macdonald's  private  letters* 
to  Sir  Charles  Tupper  and  Sir  John  Rose  and  Sir  George  Cartier 
teem  with  references  to  the  situation  thus  created  and  to  the  lack  of 
backbone  in  his  British  colleagues.  Upon  one  occasion,  Lord  de 
Grey  informed  him  that  "  he  believed  it  was  the  general  impression 
in  England  and,  especially,  of  the  Government,  that  the  danger  was 
great  and  pressing."  Again,  some  days  later,  he  writes  that  Lord  de 
Grey  had  told  him  several  times  that  "  if  this  attempt  should  fail  no 
peaceable  solution  is  possible." 

There  was  a  certain  amount  of  excuse  for  the  attitude  of  the 
British  Commissioners.  They  represented  the  Gladstone  Govern- 
ment which  was  at  this  very  time  allowing  Russia  to  tear  up  the  Black 
Sea  Treaty  and  to  destroy  the  chief  fruits  of  the  Crimean  struggle — 
a  Government  also  which  was  notoriously  fearful  of  all  war  and  was 
the  embodiment  of  the  peace  at  any  price  and  Manchester  schdol 
theories.  They  represented  a  feeling  which  was  then  dominant  in 
England  and  which  did  not  understand  the  value  of  the  Colonies  to 
Great  Britain  and  disliked  all  responsibilities  of  an  Imperial  character. 
They  did  not  comprehend  American  methods  and  character  and,  when 
President  Grant  in  December,  1870,  wrote  a  Message  to  Congress 
which  practically  threatened  war  if  the  questions  at  issue  were  not 
settled,  they  regarded  it  with  the  same  seriousness  as  they  would  a 
similar  document  presented  to  Parliament  by  the  Queen  with  the 
approval  of  her  Ministers.  The  irresponsibility  of  the  President  in 
such  matters  and  the  inter-play  of  American  politics  and  diplomacy 
were  not  as  clearly  comprehended  as  they  are  to-day. 

Other  questions  at  issue  besides  the  Atlantic  fisheries  were  the 
boundaries  of  Alaska  and  the  ownership  of  the  Island  of  San  Juan 
under  the  terms  of  the  Oregon  Treaty.  They  may  be  disposed  of 
at  once  by  saying  that  the  former  was  dealt  with   in  the  new  Treaty 

•  Memoirs  of  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald,  by  Joseph  Pope,  Ottawa.,  1894. 


388  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON 

in  such  an  indefinite  manner  as  not  to  dispose  of  it  and  that  the  latter 
was  given  into  the  hands  of  the  German  Emperor,  WilHam  I.,  as 
Arbitrator,  who  disposed  of  it  very  effectually  in  December,  1872,  by 
giving  the  Island  to  the  United  States.  By  the  Oregon  Treaty  of 
1846  the  United  States  had  received  the  splendid  region  of  the  Puget 
Sound  and  the  present  States  of  Oregon  and  Washington.  The 
boundary  line  was  to  run  along  the  49th  parallel  "  to  the  middle  of 
the  channel  which  separates  the  continent  from  Vancouver  Island  and 
thence  southerly  through  the  middle  of  said  channel,  and  of  the 
Fuca  Straits,  to  the  Pacific  Ocean."  The  dispute  of  the  ensuing 
period,  which  resulted  in  a  joint  military  occupation  of  San  Juan 
Island  and  more  than  once  brought  the  Empire  and  the  Republic 
to  the  verge  of  war,  turned  upon  the  fact  that  there  was  not  one,  but 
three,  channels,  and  that  upon  the  question  of  which  channel  should 
be  selected  as  the  dividing  line  depended  the  ownership  of  this  island 
which  guarded  the  front  of  American  territory  on  these  waters  and 
faced  the  British  Provincial  capital — Victoria.  Great  Britain  claimed 
the  most  southerly  of  these  channels,  but  was  willing  to  accept  the 
middle  one  as  a  just  and  reasonable  compromise.  For  some  inscruta- 
ble reason,  best  known  to  himself,  the  Imperial  Arbitrator  accepted 
the  American  claim. 

But  this  is  getting  far  ahead  of  the  Commissioners  as  they 
debated  and  battled  over  the  terms  of  the  proposed  Treaty,  during 
the  spring  of  1 871,  in  the  private  and  political  halls  of  Washington. 
The  American  Government  and  Commissioners  wanted  much.  They 
desired  San  Juan  to  be  given  up  to  them,  the  Fenian  raids  to  be 
eliminated  from  consideration,  the  Alaskan  boundary  to  be  adjusted 
to  their  satisfaction,  the  Atlantic  fisheries  to  be  thrown  open  to  them 
for  all  time  and  for  some  very  slight  consideration,  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  its  canals  to  be  made  free  forever.  These  things  were,  of  course, 
apart  from  their  enormous  claims  for  compensation  from  Great  Britain 


THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON  389 

regarding  the  Alabama.  In  return  they  were  willing  to  give  peace 
and  perhaps  free  fish  and  the  navigation  of  Lake  Michigan.  What 
Canada  eventually  obtained  in  the  Treaty  as  well  as  the  limitation  of 
her  inevitable  sacrifices,  may  be  seen  in  its  terms  and  they  sufficiently 
vindicate  the  stand  taken  by  Sir  John  Macdonald,  while  showing  how 
great  the  difference  really  was  between  American  expectations  and 
American  realizations. 

THE    TERMS    OF    THE    TREATY 

The  Treaty  of  Washington  was  signed  on  May  8,  1871.  By  its 
terms  the  Alabama  Claims  were  submitted  to  an  Arbitration  tribunal 
which  met  at  Geneva  in  the  following  year  and  of  which  Sir  Alex- 
ander Cockburn,  the  sturdy,  aggressive  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  Eng- 
land, was  a  prominent  member.  By  its  decision,  against  which  Chief 
Justice  Cockburn  vigorously  protested,  the  sum  of  $15,500,000  was 
awarded  to  the  United  States  as  damages  and  was  promptly  paid  by 
Great  Britain,  It  was  thought  by  many  at  the  time  that  the  amount 
was  too  large  and  this  appears  to  have  been  an  accurate  belief  from 
the  fact  that  claimants  could  never  be  found  for  a  portion  of  it  and 
have  not  been  found  yet.  The  fisheries  question  was  settled  for  the 
time  by  a  twelve  year  arrangement,  under  which  fish  and  fish-oil  were 
to  be  admitted  free  as  between  the  Dominion  and  the  States,  while 
each  was  to  share  freely  in  the  fisheries  of  the  other.  As  the  Atlantic 
P  fisheries  of  the  United  States  were  comparatively  valueless  and  entirely 

useless  to  the  Canadian  fishermen,  while  those  of  Canada  were  rich 
in  the  most  teeming  sense  of  the  word,  it  was  decided — after  long 
discussions  in  which  the  American  Commissioners  very  properly  did 
their  utmost  to  minimize  the  value  of  what  they  were  striving  to 
obtain — that  a  lump  sum  should  be  paid  the  Dominion  and  that  the 
amount  of  this  payment  should  be  settled  by  another  special  Com- 
mission. It  may  be  added  here,  that  this  Commission  met  at  Halifax 
on  June  15,  1877,  after  prolonged  delay  on  the  part  of  the  United 


390  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON 

States.  The  British  and  Canadian  Commissioner  was  Sir  Alexander 
Tilloch  Gait  and  Newfoundland  and  Canada  were  finally  awarded 
$5,500,000  as  the  value  of  the  fishing  privileges  granted  the  United 
States  in  1871  over  and  above  the  reciprocal  clauses  of  the  Treaty.* 
Payment  was  ultimately  made  after  vigorous  protests  from  Congress 
and  the  United  States  Government. 

By  the  Washington  Treaty  Americans  were  admitted  to  the 
navigation  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River  and  to  the  use  of  the  canal 
system  of  Canada  upon  equal  terms  with  British  subjects  and  under 
the  same  conditions  as  the  latter  in  any  tolls,  or  charges,  which  might 
be  levied  by  the  Dominion  Government.  They  were,  also,  allowed 
the  privilege  of  taking  timber  from  the  Maine  woods  down  the  River 
St.  John  to  the  sea — a  most  important  matter  in  those  days.  Pro- 
vision was  made  for  the  free  passage  of  goods  in  bond  through  either 
country.  This  was  an  arrangement  by  which  goods  from  one  part  of 
the  Republic  could  pass  over  Canadian  soil  to  another  part  of  the 
United  States  without  paying  duty  to  the  Canadian  authorities  and 
by  which  Canadian  products  might  have  a  similar  privilege  in  crossing 
United  States  land  or  water  territory.  It  was  a  most  serviceable  and 
beneficial  arrangement  to  both  countries  in  general  and  to  their 
transportation  interests  in  particular.  The  navigation  of  Lake 
Michigan  was  also  made  free  for  twelve  years  but,  as  the  St.  Law- 
rence was  thrown  open  forever,  it  has  never  since  been  seriously 
suggested  that  this  clause  could  be  anything  but  a  practically  perma- 
nent one.  A  most  important  item  in  the  Treaty,  and  one  which 
reflects  credit  upon  Sir  John  Macdonald,  was  the  recognition  of 
Canada's  right  under  the  Anglo-Russian  arrangement  of  1825  to 
share  in  the  free  navigation  of  the  Yukon,  Porcupine  and  Stikine 
Rivers  in  Alaska.     Had  the  future  been  fully  forseen  it  is  to  be  feared 

*  The  Dominion  received  $4,490,882  of  this  amount— not  the  whole  of  it  as  is  usually  stated.     Newfoundland  obtaii)ed 
the  batapce. 


THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON  391 

that  the  fight  over  this  clause  would  have  been  much  keener  than  it 
was.  The  St.  Clair  Canal  and  Flats,  between  Lakes  Huron  and 
Erie,  were  also  thrown  open  to  both  nations. 

Such  was  the  Washington  Treaty  in  brief.  Born  of  the  travail 
of  possible  war  and  continuous  and  bitter  controversy  ;  discussed  with 
a  million  soldiers  in  the  United  States  ready  for  any  service  or  adven- 
ture and  amid  the  clamours  of  a  discontented  and  angry  Fenian  ele- 
ment in  the  same  country ;  arranged  by  British  Commissioners  who 
were  responsible  to  a  weak-kneed  Government  and  an  electorate  still 
controlled  by  the  anti-Colonial  school  of  thought  ;  it  was  upon  the 
whole  better  for  Canada  than  might  have  been  expected.  Nothing  of 
serious  import  was  given  away  and  no  national  or  territorial  right  was 
sacrificed.  It  is  true  that  San  Juan  was  lost  but,  as  neither  England 
nor  Canada  can  apparently  expect  to  win  in  a  foreign  Arbitration, 
the  matter  might  well  have  been  discounted.  In  any  case  it  was  not 
worth  the  other  arbitrament  of  war.  Nearly  $5,000,000  in  money 
was  obtained  for  the  use  of  the  fisheries  and,  although  the  clauses 
dealing  with  this  part  of  the  subject  were  abrogated  by  the  United 
States  in  1885,  that  action  was  not  without  its  compensation  in  the 
practical  recovery  of  Canadian  fishing  grounds  for  Canadian  fishermen. 

To  Sir  John  Macdonald  the  negotiations  were  a  nightmare  of 
diplomacy.  He  expected  to  fight  vigorously  against  the  American 
Commissioners  and  to  find  in  them  the  keenest  and  wariest  of  anta- 
gonists. They  were  on  their  own  ground,  with  a  President  and  Senate 
which  would  back  up  a  strong  and  aggressive  policy,  and  they  were 
contending  for  enhanced  influence  and  power  for  their  own  people 
upon  the  American  continent.  But  to  have  to  struggle  against 
his  own  British  colleagues  as  well  as  the  American  Commissioners 
was  to  Sir  John  a  continuous  irritation  and  a  very  heavy  burden  to 
his  heart.  "In  our  separate  caucuses,"  he  wrote,  on  one  occasion,  to 
Dr.  Tupper,   *'  my  colleagues  were  continually  pressing  me  to  yield," 


392  THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON 

They  even  supported  the  American  desire  for  a  permanent  cession  of 
the  fisheries.  He  described  the  discussions  with  them  as  being 
"warm,"  or  "unpleasant,"  and  wrote  once  of  being  obhged  to  tell 
Lord  de  Grey  that  "  I  believed  I  knew  what  my  duty  was  and 
would  endeavour  to  perform  it."  He  had  to  tell  them  plainly  on 
another  occasion  *  that  "  it  was  intolerable  that  these  New  Eng- 
land fishermen  should  say  they  were  resolved  to  fish  in  our  waters, 
right  or  wrong,  and  if  not  allowed  would  force  on  a  war  between  the 
two  nations ;  and  we  ought  not  to  sacrifice  our  property  by  reason  of 
such  threats." 

Several  times  his  protests  were  sent  to  England  and  ultimately 
made  good ;  several  times  he  was  on  the  point  of  resigning.  One  of 
these  occasions  was  when  the  cable  came  from  London  authorizing  a 
reference  of  the  value  of  the  fisheries  to  arbitration.  Fortunately,  he 
did  not  do  so  and  wrote  afterwards  to  Dr.  Tupper  that  had  he  left 
the  Commission  then  the  lease  of  the  fisheries  would  have  been  for 
twenty-five  years  and  fish-oil  would  have  been  excluded  from  free 
interchange.  Finally,  he  felt  the  whole  matter  so  bitterly  that  he 
hoped  to  avoid  signing  the  Treaty  and  thus  to  throw  the  responsi- 
bility where  it  belonged.  But  the  protests  were  so  strong  and  the 
reasons  so  apparent  that  he  did  not  eventually  do  so.  Without  his 
signature  the  Treaty  would  probably  not  have  passed  the  American 
Senate  and  could  certainly  not  have  been  carried  at  Ottawa.  Once  it 
was  signed  by  him  he  assumed  the  fullest  responsibility  ;  uttered  not 
one  complaint  in  all  the  twenty  years  of  his  further  public  life  ;  and 
suffered  a  most  unjust  share  of  obloquy  in  Canada  for  its  acceptance. 

HOW    THE    TREATY    WAS    RECEIVED    IN    CANADA 

When  Sir  John  arrived  home  from  Washington  he  received  a 
perfect  storm  of  censure  from  the  Opposition  press.  He  was  declared 
a  traitor  to  Canadian   interests  and   a  Judas   Iscariot  and  Benedict 

*  Letter  to  Sir  George  Cartier,  April  17,  1871.     Pope's  Memoirs. 


THE  TREATY  OF  WASHINGTON  393 

Arnold  combined  in  one.  Parliament  was  not  to  meet  until  the  suc- 
ceeding February  and  for  nearly  a  year  the  Premier  endured  this 
unstinted  abuse  in  perfect  silence.  Of  course,  neither  the  people  at 
large,  nor  the  Opposition,  nor  his  own  followers,  knew,  or  ever  did 
know,  the  truth  about  the  Commission.  That  has  awaited  his  death 
and  the  consideration  of  another  generation.  Had  it  been  any  other 
man  he  could  not  have  overcome  the  situation.  But  Sir  John's  per- 
sonality, popularity  and  the  sense  of  the  inevitable  carried  the  Treaty 
through  Parliament  in  the  spring  of  1872.  The  speech  delivered  by 
the  Premier  was  memorable  for  an  eloquence  which  was  not  an  ordi- 
nary characteristic  of  the  man  and  for  a  degree  of  earnestness  and  force 
which  carried  the  second  reading  by  121  to  55.  His  chief  argument 
consisted  of  the  fact  that  while  Canada  was  making  some  sacrifices  in 
accepting  the  arrangement  yet  she  was  making  them  for  the  sake  of 
the  Empire  and  its  future  friendly  relations  with  the  United  States. 
In  the  elections  which  followed  shortly  afterwards  the  Treaty  had 
a  considerable  place  and  was  the  chief  ground  of  attack  upon  the 
Government.  "  I  had,"  wrote  Sir  John  to  Lord  Monck,  the  Gov- 
ernor-General, "to  fight  a  stern  and  up-hill  battle  in  Ontario.  I  never 
worked  so  hard  before  and  never  shall  do  so  again,  but  I  felt  it  to  be 
necessary  this  time.  I  did  not  want  a  verdict  against  the  Treaty  from 
the  country."  The  elections  were  won  but  he  always  believed  that 
a  rankling  dissatisfaction  in  the  popular  mind  contributed  greatly  to 
his  defeat  in  those  of  1874.  The  Treaty,  however,  was  now  a  fact  of 
history,  the  Alabama  troubles  had  been  settled,  the  fisheries  were 
removed  for  some  years  from  their  place  as  a  serious  international 
irritant,  the  fear  of  conflict  on  the  British  Columbia  borders  was 
eliminated  and  the  past  relations  of  the  Empire  and  the  Republic 
during  the  Civil  War  were  left  to  the  cooling  influence  of  time,  and 
the  soothing  process  of  partial  forgetfulness. 


FDlitkal  Qiiestkkns  and  Devdopment 

THE  gRMrtk  andl  progress  of  a  cxwatiy  does  not  ahrays  appear  on 
llie  bioad  snrfiKe  of  aJEurs  or  in  tlie  dtscosskm  and  settk^cnent 
of  ^Kiat;  are  called  greaH  pnlific  qnestioas.  These  latter  mark 
oii^i»cdl^die  invaid  dev^opnent  and  are  useful  ako  as  educative 
dK  people  Qr»  ui  some  cases^  as  evidences  of  popular 
tlie  poGlkians.  E'yrrially  true  is  tbis  condnsion  in 
viik  tiK  iiisl  wmiing  yeais  oC  a  nev  Constitution. 
A  vhmeil  ajsiD  vmsxiMG  coiniQdr«rEAi.TH 
Wkea  C-MTwh  pMt  on  dn  Federal  |pab  in  1S67  firesh  conditiQtis 
faoedt  new  piohluab  were  presented  iiqioftant  controversies 
It  vas  lMipc4  hamvMj,  tkat  tlie  teapot  troubles  of 
lestiincd  staie^  Ae  fwrasinnaiiy  fatistic.  fancit'j  of  isolated  colonies^ 
be  tj^yjl  in  dK  luser  albirs  of  a  vider  and  videnii^ 
In  great  part  dns  hope  was  wafard  Tliejcadoosies 
of  Qndbec  and  Otiffin^*  moe  »odi&rd  to  a  d^rree  vhick  remoned 
tibe  <liinl  of  danger  and  rmMrd  deH  to  vrork  togednr  vrtk 

of  vien  in  dK  Marilnnie  Jhravinoes  were  gw^t—j^Bir  inwrlicM^ilf  d  nndtr 

tbc  violeno^  tke  b^otij  <if  pofitks  in  the  Canadas  vpcre  nmdified 

hf  Sir  JqIm  A>  Hacdonaidls  poficj  vi  oondfiation  »nd  tact. 


THE  HON.  SIR  CHARLES  HIBBERT  TUPPER 
K.C.M.G.,  Q.C.,  M.P. 


THE  HON.  SIR  ADOLPHE  J.  P.  R.  CARON 
K.C.M.G. 


>   /l^   li^ 

THE  HON.  SIR  ALEXANDER  CAMPBELL 
K.C.M.G. 


THE  HON.  SIR  D.  L.  MACPHERSON 
K.C.M.G. 

Senator  of  Canada 


Political  questions  and  development  397 

Before  Confederation  he  had  laboured  for  the  harmonizing  of 
extreme  Tories  with  moderate  Conservatives,  of  French-Canadian 
moderates,  or  followers  of  Lafontaine,  with  Upper  Canadian  Liberals 
of  moderate  views  who  had  once  followed  Baldwin,  into  a  great  party 
to  which  he  eventually  gave  the  somewhat  clumsy  title  of  Liberal- 
Conservative.  In  some  measure  he  had  succeeded  and  would  have 
done  so  in  a  far  wider  and  more  effective  manner  had  not  the  rivalry 
of  French  and  English  opinion,  of  Lower  and  Upper  Canada,  been 
for  the  time  hopelessly  violent.  Confederation,  however,  came  and 
with  it  the  opportunity  to  develop  his  large  views  in  practical  form 
and  to.  give  his  party  an  important  place  upon  a  really  national  canvas. 

THE    FIRST   CABINET    OF    THE    DOMINION 

The  first  Cabinet  of  the  Dominion  was,  in  accordance  with  this 
policy  of  assimilation,  composed  in  equal  parts  of  men  who  had  been 
at  one  time  either  Liberals  or  Conservatives.  In  support  of  his  Gov- 
ernment he  was  able,  by  virtue  of  conciliation  and  calculation,  to  com- 
bine the  large  majority  of  French-Canadians  and  to  give  an  impetus 
to  Conservative  sentiment  in  that  Province  which  lasted  for  fully 
twenty  years. 

The  Ministry  was  termed  a  coalition,  but  George  Brown,  as  leader 
of  the  Upper  Canada  Liberals,  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
new  "  Sir  John  "  any  more  than  he  would  with  the  old  "John  A."* 
His  aggressive,  uncompromising  will  would  brook  no  superior  in 
council,  or  even  an  equal,  and  though  compelled  for  a  brief  space  to 
co-operate  with  Macdonald  in  the  Cabinet  which  helped  to  arrange 
the  terms  of  Confederation,  he  left  it  as  soon  as  possible  and 
resumed  the  old  terms  of  personal  non-intercourse  with  the  only  man 
whom  he  deemed  a  rival.     In  his  refusal  to  accept  the  Federal  Cabinet 

*  During  the  years  stretching  from  his  entry  into  public  life  in  the  early  "  Forties  "  until  Confederation  ,  when  the 
Queen  made  him  a  K.  C.  B.,  Mr.  Macdonald  was  known  far  and  wide  as  "  John  A."  and  with  every  year  the  affectionate 
popular  appellation  grew  in  use.  After  his  Knighthood  there  was  only  one  "  Sir  John  "  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 
The  surname  was  superfluous. 


398  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

of  1867  as  a  representative  coalition  Brown  was  joined  by  Mr.  A.  A. 
Dorion  and  a  few  of  the  old-time  Liberal  leaders  of  Quebec  and  the 
nucleus  of  a  present  Opposition  in  Parliament  and  of  a  future  Dominion 
Liberal  party  was  thus  formed. 

Of  course,  Sir  John  Macdonald  never  intended  his  Ministry  to 
be  a  real  coalition  or  to  remain  for  long  as  even  a  nominal  one.  His 
intention  was  to  form  all  parties  and  public  men,  who  might  be  avail- 
able, into  a  strong,  united  organization  capable  of  carrying  on  the 
Government  with  a  firm  hand,  of  maintaining  defined  and  vigorous 
principles,  of  preventing  any  more  such  experiences  of  weakness  and 
inefficiency  as  had  preceded  Confederation,  of  harmonizing  hostile 
elements  which  would  otherwise  drift  further  apart  and  endanger  the 
successful  working  of  the  new  constitution,  of  affording  scope  for 
the  exercise  of  his  own  powers  of  leadership  and  government.  Within 
a  comparatively  short  time  his  policy  was  successful  and,  despite 
Liberal  Conventions  and  George  Brown's  desperate  efforts  in  The 
Toronto  Globe,  the  Conservative  party  became  a  compact  organization 
with  the  Prime  Minister  as  practically  its  head  and  front  and  plat- 
form. 

The  first  Cabinet  of  the  new  Dominion  was  made  up  very  largely 
of  men  who  had  worked  energetically  for  Confederation  and  who, 
therefore,  deserved  consideration  at  the  hands  of  the  incoming  Pre- 
mier. It  was  not  easy  to  arrange  it  and  the  mere  fact,  as  stated  in 
Canadian  historical  works,  that  a  Government  was  formed  on  July 
I,  1867,  by  Sir  John  Macdonald  with  a  specified  list  of  colleagues, 
affords  little  hint  of  the  difficulties  he  really  had  to  encounter. 
That  of  a  surplus  of  available  men  is  not  an  unusual  condition  in 
such  cases  and  may  be  passed  over  with  the  statement  that  the  exclu- 
sion of  Dr.  Tupper  and  D'Arcy  McGee  has  always  seemed  a  curious 
one — the  details  not  being  generally  known  then  or  since.  The  neces- 
sity,   however,   of  giving   each    Province   proper   representation,  of 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  399 

leaving  room  for  the  admission  of  representatives  from  Manitoba  and 
Prince  Edward  Island  and  British  Columbia,  of  granting  the  Irish 
electorate  a  certain  consideration  and  of  recognizing  the  Protestants 
of  the  Eastern  Townships  of  Quebec,  was  the  rock  upon  which  the 
nebulous  Cabinet  nearly  came  to  wreck  in  the  week  preceding  July 
1st.*  Eventually,  this  result  was  avoided  by  Dr.  Tupper  and  his 
friend  McGee  retiring  from  the  "  slate  "  on  which  they  had,  of  course, 
been  amongst  the  first  to  receive  a  place  and  thus  making  it  possible 
to  give  the  French-Canadians  another  representative.  The  Ministry 
was  as  follows  and  was  sustained  at  the  ensuing  elections  by  a  fair 
majority : 

Premier  and  Minister  of  Justice,  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald. 

Minister  of  Finance,  Hon.  A.  T.  Gait. 

Minister  of  Public  Works,  Hon.  William  McDougall. 

Minister  of  Militia  and  Defence,  Sir  G.  E.  Cartier. 

Minister  of  Customs,  Hon.  S.  L.  Tilley. 

Minister  of  Agriculture,  Hon.  J.  C.  Chapais. 

Postmaster-General,  Hon.  Alexander  Campbell. 

Minister  of  Marine  and  Fisheries,  Hon.  Peter  Mitchell. 

Minister  of  Inland  Revenue,  Hon.  W.  P.  Howland. 

President  of  the  Council,  Hon.  A.  J.  Fergusson-Blair. 

Receiver-General,  Hon.  Edward  Kenny. 

Secretary  of  State,  Hon.  H.  L.  Langevin. 

Secretary  of  State  for  the  Provinces,  Hon.  A.  G.  Archibald. 

Of  these  members  Macdonald,  Gait,  Cartier,  Campbell,  Lange- 
vin, Chapais  and  Kenny  had  been  Conservatives  and  McDougall, 
Tilley,  Mitchell,  Howland,  Archibald  and  Fergusson-Blair  Liberals — 
under  previous  Provincial  conditions.  Many  of  the  latter  indeed, 
continued  for  some  time  to  call  themselves  by  the  old  name  and  to 
consider  their  Ministry  as  a  coalition.  The  events  of  the  decade 
following  the  formation  of  this  administration  were  all-important  in 

*  Information  given  to  the  author  by  Sir  Charles  Tupper  and  other  survivors  of  the  Confederation  period. 


4ob  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

the  making  of  Canada.  Those  which  stand  out  most  prominently, 
with  one  exception,  were  the  bringing  in  of  the  outstanding  Provinces, 
the  insurrection  in  the  North- West,  the  Washington  Treaty  and  the 
developments  leading  up  to  the  National  Policy,  They  have  been 
dealt  with  elsewhere  in  these  pages.  The  exception  was  largely  a 
political  occurrence,  but  one  which  exercised  a  wide  influence  over  the 
future  policy  of  the  Dominion — the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  issue 
of  1872,  which  is  described  by  Liberal  partisans  as  a  scandal  and  by 
Conservative  partisans  as  a  slander.  It  was  in  reality  something  of 
the  one  and  something  of  the  other.  And,  amidst  all  these  public 
issues  and  problems  the  vital  work  of  national  organization  went 
steadily  on. 

General  elections  took  place  in  1872  and  the  Government  of  Sir 
John  Macdonald  was  sustained,  though  with  a  reduced  majority. 
Reverses  had  been  met  with  in  Quebec  and  Ontario,  owing  partly  to 
the  fact  that  Sir  George  Cartier's  failing  health  led  to  mistakes  in  the 
management  of  matters  in  the  former  Province  and  partly  to  the 
unpopularity  of  the  Washington  Treaty  in  the  latter.  Much  fear 
was  also  felt  and  expressed  as  to  the  cost  of  the  proposed  Canadian 
Pacific  Railway.  Nova  Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  however,  made 
up  for  other  losses  by  the  most  sweeping  Conservative  success.  In 
Nova  Scotia,  owing  to  the  wonderful  influence  of  Howe — even  when 
the  personal  regard  of  the  people  for  him  had  greatly  changed — 
there  was  but  one  member  returned  in  opposition  to  the  Union  Gov- 
ernment where  in  1867,  with  him  on  the  other  side,  there  had  been 
only  one  elected  in  its  favour.  Much,  of  course,  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  Howe  and  Tupper  were  now  working  together.  In  this  year  the 
Earl  of  Dufferin  came  out  as  Governor-General  to  fill  a  Vice-royalty 
memorable  for  his  personal  tact  and  unfailing  courtesy,  for  his  elo- 
quence and  popularity,  and  as  being  the  foundation  of  a  career  of 
steadily   growing   diplomatic   reputation  and    power.     Incidentally, 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  401 

Canadian    riflemen    in  competition  with    the    crack    shots  of    Great 
Britain  had  captured  the  Kolapore  Cup  at  Wimbledon. 

THE    TRANS-CONTINENTAL    RAILWAY    PROJECT 

But  the  great  event  of  the  year  in  Canada  was  Sir  John  Mac- 
donald's  attempt  to  carry  out  the  Federal  pledge  to  British  Columbia 
regarding  the  proposed  trans-continental  railway.  He  interested  a 
number  of  capitalists  in  the  project  but  they,  unfortunately,  formed 
two  distinct  Companies  for  the  purpose  of  constructing  the  road  under 
contract.  They  obtained  incorporation  and  inaugurated  a  fierce  rivalry 
in  Parliament  and  the  press.  The  Inter-Oceanic  Company  of  Toronto 
had  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  D.  L.  McPherson  as  its  President  and  men 
such  as  the  Hon.  William  McMaster,  the  Hon.  Frank  Smith  and  the 
Hon.  G.  W.  Allan,  of  Toronto,  Senator  Simpson  of  Bownanville,  the 
Hon.  Isidore  Thibaudeau  and  David  Torrance  of  Montreal,  the  Hon. 
John  Carling  of  London,  Casimir  S.  Gzowski  of  Toronto,  John  Boyd 
of  St.  John  and  Senator  Price  of  Quebec,  upon  its  Directorate.  Sir 
Hugh  Allan,  the  leader  of  many  transportation  interests  and  a  capi- 
talist of  keen  energy  and  enterprise  was  President  of  the  Canada- 
Pacific  Company  of  Montreal,  with  men  of  the  calibre  and  standing 
of  the  Hon.  (afterwards  Sir)  J.  J.  C.  Abbott,  the  Hon.  John  Ham- 
ilton, the  Hon.  C.  J.  Coursol  and  the  Hon.  J.  L.  Beaudry  of  Mon- 
treal, the  Hon.  James  Skead  of  Ottawa,  the  Hon.  J.  J.  Ross  of 
Quebec,  the  Hon.  Donald  A.  Smith  (now  Lord  Strathcona  and  Mount 
Royal),  Sir  Edward  Kenny  of  Halifax,  Donald  Mclnnes  of  Hamil- 
ton and  C.  F.  Gildersleeve  of  Kingston,  upon  his  Directorate. 

The  measure  upon  which  this  rivalry  was  based  had  been  intro- 
duced in  Parliament  by  Sir  George  E.  Cartier  on  April  26,  1872,  as 
a  Bill  for  the  construction,  under  charter,  of  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railway  which  was  to  extend  "  from  some  point  on,  or  near,  Lake 
Nipissing  to  some  point  on  the  shore  of  the  Pacific  Ocean."  A  grant 
of    50,000,000  acres  was  to  be  given  in  blocks  of  twenty  miles    in 


4o2  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

depth  on  each  side  of  the  line  of  the  railway  in  Manitoba,  the  North- 
West  Territories  and  British  Columbia  and  alternating  with  similar 
blocks  held  by  the  Dominion  Government  for  sale  or  grant.  A  cash 
subsidy  of  not  more  than  $30,000,000  was  also  to  be  granted.  The 
measure  passed  on  May  28th  after  several  amendments  moved  by 
Messrs.  Edward  Blake,  A.  A.  Dorion  and  Alexander  Mackenzie, 
on  behalf  of  the  Liberal  party,  had  been  voted  down.  During  the 
debates  upon  this  question,  in  connection  with  the  admission  of  Bri- 
tish Columbia  in  1871  and  in  this  Session  of  1872,  the  Opposition 
laid  strenuous  stress  upon  the  work  as  being  altogether  beyond  the 
resources  of  Canada  and  dwelt  constantly  upon  the  frightful  bur- 
dens of  taxation  which  it  would  involve.  One  leader  said  it  could 
never  pay  for  the  axle-grease  upon  its  wheels  and  Mr.  Blake  in  a 
famous  speech  declared  that  British  Columbia  was  only  a  "sea  of 
mountains  "  and  therefore  hardly  worth  so  great  a  sacrifice. 

The  Bill  passed,  however,  and  then  came  the  delicate  and  difficult 
task  of  bringing  together  the  rival  interests  of  the  capitalists,  in  one 
strong  corporation,  for  its  construction.  The  Companies  had  been  origi- 
nally formed  as  a  result  of  Sir  John  Macdonald's  private  efforts  to  inter- 
est Canadian  men  of  money  in  the  matter  in  preference  to  allowing  the 
contract  to  drop  into  the  open  hands  of  American  capitalists  who  had 
early  expressed  their  willingness  to  take  hold  of  the  enterprise.  Sir 
Hugh  Allan,  however,  had  at  once  communicated  with  the  Americans 
and,  although  their  names  did  not  appear  upon  his  Directorate,  it  was 
well  known  that  if  he  were  successful  in  obtaining  the  contract  their 
interest  would  be  a  predominant  one.  Mr.  McPherson,  on  the  other 
hand,  had  formed  a  Company  which  was  purely  Canadian.  The  hope 
of  the  Government,  in  such  a  difficulty,  was  the  combination  of  the  two 
concerns  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  absolutely  exclude  American  capital 
while  preventing  it  from  obtaining  a  dominant  influence  in  the  matter. 
Moreover,  Sir  Hugh  Allan  was  too  important  a  man,  too  experienced 


Political  questions  and  development  403 

in  transportation  affairs,  and  had  been  too  generous  to  the  party 
which  Sir  John  Macdonald  led,  to  make  it  desirable  to  put  him 
entirely  aside.  It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  general  elections  of 
1872  took  place  and  what  was  afterwards  termed  the  Pacific  scandal 
occurred.  Following  the  elections  and  as  a  rest  of  the  apparent  impos- 
sibility of  bringing  the  two  Companies  together — largely  because  Sir 
Hugh  Allan  and  Mr.  McPhersoh  each  desired  to  be  President  of  the 
consolidated  concern — the  charter  was  eventually  given  to  a  new 
Company  with  Sir  Hugh  Allan  at  its  head.  Then  the  greatest  poli- 
tical storm  in  Canadian  history  burst  upon  the  country. 

THE    PACIFIC    RAILWAY    CHARGES 

On  April  2,  1873,  amidst  suppressed  excitement  and  in  an  atmos- 
phere   laden  with  the    hopes    and    fears  of  political    electricity,  Mr. 
Lucius   Seth    Huntington   rose  in   the    House   of  Commons  with  a 
statement  and  motion  of  serious    import.     He  was  a  good  speaker 
and  a  politician  of  some  ability  who  had  been  a  member  of  Sandfield 
Macdonald's  Government  in  the  early  "sixties"  and  was  destined  to 
hold  a  place  in  the   next   Dominion   Cabinet.     The  charge  he  made 
was  dramatic   in   style  and   solemn    in    substance.      It   meant    that 
the  Government   had    trafficked  with  foreigners  in  connection  with 
Canadian  railway  interests  and  in  order  to  obtain  money  to  debauch 
the  constituencies  in   the  elections    of   1872.      Stripped  of  verbiage, 
it   declared   that  Sir    Hugh  Allan,   acting  for  American  capitalists, 
had   practically  obtained  the  Pacific   charter   for  them  and   himself 
through  the  contribution  of  large  sums  of  money  to  the  Conservative 
campaign   fund    and  that   this   money  had   been  obtained  from    the 
United  States  capitalists  referred  to   through   a  man   named  G.  W. 
McMullen.      For  the  moment  Mr.  Huntington  offered  no  proofs  but 
demanded  the  appointment  of  a  Committee  of  the  House  to  inquire 
into  the  whole  matter  of  the  Railway  charter.      Upon  motion  of  Sir 
John    Macdonald   a    Select    Committee  composed  of  Messrs.  J.  G. 


404  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

Blanchet,  Edward  Blake,  A.  A.  Dorion,  James  McDonald  and  John 
Hillyard  Cameron — three  Conservatives  and  two  Liberals — was 
promptly  appointed.  A  measure  was  also  passed  to  enable  the  Com- 
mittee to  make  its  inquiries  from  witnesses  under  oath. 

Parliament  then  adjourned  to  13th  August,  when  it  was  thought 
that  the  Committee's  Report  might  be  received.  Meanwhile,  the 
Oaths  Bill  was  disallowed  in  London  as  being-  illegfal  and  the  work  of 
the  Committee  rendered  practically  impossible.  A  tremendous  sensa- 
tion was  also  created  and  a  new  turn  given  to  the  whole  question  by 
the  publication  of  a  series  of  letters  and  telegrams  in  Montreal  which 
seemed  to  clearly  indicate  the  guilt  of  the  Ministry.  Mr.  McMullen, 
it  was  afterwards  shown,  had  obtained  them  surreptitiously  from  the 
desk  of  Mr.  J.  J.  C.  Abbott,  the  legal  adviser  of  Sir  Hugh  Allan. 
In  plain  English  they  had  been  stolen  and  then  made  public.  Ap- 
pearing without  any  explanation,  except  of  a  hostile  character,  they 
seemed  so  serious  that  public  sentiment  was  roused  to  a  white  heat 
and  much  anger  was  shown  toward  Lord  Dufferin  for  not  at  once  dis- 
missing his  Ministry.  These  documents  were  all  of  a  somewhat 
similar  nature.  The  most  important  of  them  was  as  follows  and  was 
marked  "  Private  and  confidential  "  : 

"Montreal,  30th  July,  1872. 
Dear  Sir  Hugh  : 

The  friends  of  the  Government  will  be  expected  to  be  assisted 
with  funds  in  the  pending  elections,  and  any  amount  which  you,  or  your  Company 
shall  advance  for  that  purpose  shall  be  recouped  to  you.  A  memorandum  of  immedi- 
ate requirements  is  below.  Very  truly  yours, 

(Signed)         George  E.  Cartier. 
Now  wanted  : 

Sir  John  A.  Macdonald, ^^25,000 

Hon.  Mr.  Langevin, 15,000 

Sir  G.  E.   C. , 20,000 

Sir  J.  A.  (add'l.), 10,000 

Sir  G.  E.  C.  (add'l.) 30,000" 


THE  HON.  SIR   RICHARD  J.  CARTWRIGHT 

K.C.M.G.,  M.P. 

Finance  Minister  of  Canada,  1H73-78 


THE  HON.  EDWARD  BLAKE 

Q.C.,LL.D.,M.P. 

Dominion  Liberal  Leader,  1880-87 


THE  HON.  SIR  ANTOINE  A.  DORION,  KNT. 

Chief  Justice  of  Quebec,  1874-91 


THE  HON.  SIR  GEORGE  E.  CARTIER 

BART.,  M.P. 
Premier  of  the  Canadas  before  Confederation 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  407 

Other  documents  were  receipts  for  similar  sums,  requests  for 
more  and  a  telegram  which  became  particularly  well  known  in  the 
elections  and  controversies  of  succeeding  years.  It  was  addressed  to 
Mr.  Abbott  at  Montreal,  on  August  26th,  signed  "  John  A.  Mac- 
donald,"  and  read  as  follows:  "I  must  have  another  $10,000;  will 
be  the  last  time  of  calling ;  do  not  fail  me  ;  answer  to-day."  Mr. 
Abbott  promptly  wired  to  draw  on  him  for  the  amount.  In  his 
subsequent  evidence  before  a  Royal  Commission  Sir  Hugh  Allan 
gave  a  list  of  the  total  sums  which  he  had  contributed  in  this  connec- 
tion. They  included  $85,000  to  Sir  George  Cartier's  Committee  in 
Montreal — where  he  fought  a  losing  battle  in  a  very  doubtful  con- 
stituency, against  the  advice  of  Sir  John  Macdonald,  and  was  beaten  ; 
$45,000  to  Sir  John  himself,  for  election  expenses  in  Ontario;  and 
$32,600  to  Mr.  H.  L.  Langevin  for  election  expenses  at  Quebec.  Such 
is  the  bare  detail  of  the  matter  and  it  certainly  looks  bad  enough. 
Fill  in  these  particulars  with  the  natural  animus  of  party  warfare  ; 
add  the  suspicions  resulting  from  a  season  of  company  promoting 
and  charter  controversies;  mix  up  in  this  mess  the  unsustained  alle- 
gations of  disappointed  capitalists  and  defeated  politicians  ;  and  the 
result  is  still  more  unpleasant. 

Yet  time  and  the  justice  of  historic  retrospect  have  thrown 
strong  light  into  this  dense  shadow  and  relieved  the  situation  of  much 
that  at  first  seemed  inexcusable.  Sir  Hugh  Allan  was  a  man  who 
would  have  been  naturally  connected  with  such  an  enterprise  as  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  both  by  public  fitness  and  financial  power. 
He  was,  and  always  had  been,  a  Conservative  and  is  understood  to 
have  given  almost  as  liberally  to  party  funds  in  a  preceding  election 
as  in  this  one  of  1872.  His  great  transportation  interests  depended 
very  largely  for  success  upon  the  progressive  policy  of  the  Govern- 
ment and  would  have  made  him  contribute  to  its  campaign  fund  with- 
out any   question  of  a  C.  P.  R.    charter.       He   practically  controlled 


4o8  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

the  Canadian  freight  and  passenger  traffic  to  Europe  through  the 
Montreal  Ocean  Steamship  Company  and  was  aiming  to  keep  this 
trade  as  against  a  proposed  ocean  line  under  the  auspices  of  the  Grand 
Trunk  Railway.  He,  therefore,  had  purchased,  or  projected,  or 
obtained  control  of  railways  from  Toronto  to  Quebec — notably  the 
North  Shore  Railway  and  the  Northern  Colonization  Line.  If  he 
could  obtain  the  political  assistance  and  co-operation  of  Sir  George 
Cartier  in  his  projects  it  would  mean  much  in  the  Legislature  of 
Quebec  and  would  probably  enable  him  to  defeat  the  efforts  of  the 
Grand  Trunk  to  capture  his  ocean  traffic  by  means  of  a  rival  line. 
Hence  it  was  that  this  $162,000  subscription  to  the  election  funds 
might  have  been  obtained  by  Cartier  without  reference  to  the  Cana- 
dian Pacific  matter  at  all. 

Meanwhile,  the  election  had  been  going  on.  Sir  John  Macdonald 
knew  nothing  of  the  immense  sums  which  were  obtained,  personally, 
by  Sir  George  Cartier  for  what  he  had  described  as  the  "  insane  " 
election  contest  in  Montreal  and  it  is  not  difficult  to  understand  his 
twice-repeated  calls  for  money  during  the  strenuous  struggle  he  was 
carrying  on  in  Ontario.  In  the  midst  of  it,  on  July  30th,  he  received 
a  letter  from  Sir  Hugh  Allan,  saying  that  he  had  made  an  arrange- 
ment with  Cartier  by  which  the  construction  of  the  railway  had  been 
promised  to  his  Company  if  the  attempts  at  amalgamation  should 
fail.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation  Sir  John  telegraphed  a  repudia- 
tion of  the  whole  matter  and  explicitly  declared  that  Cartier  had  no 
authority  to  make  any  arrangement  of  the  kind.  Then,  as  the  Pre- 
mier afterwards  pointed  out,*  Sir  Hugh  subscribed  to  the  party  fund 
the  amounts  elsewhere  indicated,  "  in  the  face  of  a  positive  intimation 
from  the  Government  through  me,  that  the  road  would  not  be  given 
to  his  Company,  but  only  to  an  amalgamated  company." 


*  Private  letter  to  Lord  Dufferin,  explaining  the   situation,  written  on  October  9,  1873,  and  not  made  public  until 
1894. 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  409 

This  must  have  been  a  serious  blow  to  the  ambitious  financier,  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  he  had  to  consider  the  very  real  danger  to  the  whole 
project  and  to  his  general  transportation  interests,  if  the  Government 
were  defeated.  Evidently,  as  a  busines  man,  he  balanced  his  chances 
and  decided  to  back  the  Conservative  party  for  all  he  was  worth.  It 
was  a  case  of  inclination  and  policy  going  hand  in  hand.  There  is 
no  doubt,  also,  that  Cartier  had  committed  the  Government  to  a 
degree  of  which  Sir  John  Macdonald  had  no  conception  and  in  which 
his  repudiation  of  the  written  arrangement  seems  to  have  had  little 
effect.  The  reason  for  Cartier's  extraordinary  course  throughout  this 
entire  period  was  only  known  to  a  few  at  that  time  and  was  never 
known  to  the  public.  In  the  confidential  communication  to  Lord 
Dufferin  already  quoted,  Sir  John  says  :  "  Not  until  after  his  death 
(May  20,  1873)  ^"^^  the  evidence  was  produced,  were  any  of  his  col- 
leagues aware  of  his  insane  course.  As  I  have  already  said  it  showed 
too  clearly  that  his  mind  had  broken  down  as  well  as  body.  Of 
course,  I  can  say  this  to  you  only,  as  I  would  rather  suffer  any  con- 
sequences than  cast  any  reflection  upon  his  memory  before  the  public, 
or  say  anything  that  would  have  even  the  appearance  of  an  attempt 
to  transfer  any  blame  that  may  attach  to  these  transactions  to  any  one 
who  is  no  longer  here  to  speak  for  himself." 

He  then  went  on  to  point  out  that  neither  he,  nor  any  member 
of  the  Government,  had  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  situation 
created  by  Cartier  in  Montreal.  He  also  referred  to  the  fact  that 
money  was  necessary  for  the  legitimate  expenses  of  an  election  ;  that 
in  Canada,  unfortunately,  there  was  no  Carlton  Club  to  conduct  the 
financial  part  of  a  campaign  ;  that  money  was  collected  and  must  be 
collect'ed  for  these  purposes  and  that  it  had  to  pass,  more  or  less, 
under  existing  circumstances,  through  the  hands  of  Ministers.  He 
might  have  pointed  out  that  no  one,  even  in  those  days  of  fiery  accu- 
sation, ever  charged  him  or  his  colleagues  with  benefiting  personally 


410  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

by  the  moneys  thus  received  and,  it  may  be  added  here  as  greatly  to 
his  credit,  that  up  to  the  day  of  his  death  Sir  John  Macdonald  never 
uttered  a  word  of  reproach,  or  of  insinuation,  regarding  the  conduct 
of  Sir  George  Cartier.  The  latter's  long  friendship  and  co-operation 
with  Sir  John  and  his  sincere  work  for  Canada  deserved  this.  But, 
the  incident  is  none  the  less  a  lasting  proof  of  the  personal  fidelity  and 
honour  of  a  Canadian  leader  under  severe  strain. 

Regrettable  as  the  whole  episode  was,  hurtful  as  it  was  to  the  posi- 
tion and  prospects  of  all  concerned,  injurious  as  it  was  to  the  fair  fame  of 
Canadian  politics,  it  is  yet  reasonable  to  say  that  the  ensuing  national 
condemnation  was  sufficient  punishment  to  the  Conservative  leaders 
and  that  Sir  John  Macdonald  has  come  out  of  the  whole  transaction 
much  cleaner  politically  and  much  better  personally  than  even  his 
ardent  followers  at  that  time  had  hoped  for.  There  has  been  much 
nonsense  written  upon  this  subject.  Money  is  needed  in  elections  and 
must  be  obtained.  There  was  no  Conservative  so  rich  and  so  availa- 
able  as  Sir  Hugh  Allan  and,  unless  he  expected  to  buy  the  charter 
by  this  means,  there  was  no  corruption  in  connection  with  Dominion 
politics,  in  his  contribution.  This  can  hardly  be  said,  however,  as  to 
his  expectations  from  Sir  George  Cartier  in  Quebec  politics.  The 
unfortunate  mental  and  physical  ailments  of  Cartier  at  this  time  are, 
perhaps,  sufficient  excuse  for  him  and  it  is  also  apparent  that  Sir  John 
Macdonald  was  not  really  responsible,  though  he  fully  assumed  the 
responsibility,  for  his  colleague's  vagaries.  On  the  other  hand  his 
instant  repudiation  of  Cartier's  tentative  promise  and  the  refusal  of 
the  Government  to  aid  Allan's  pretension  to  the  Presidency  of  the 
amalgamated  Company  after  the  elections,  relieves  him  from  per- 
sonal suspicion. 

Meantime,  a  Royal  Commission  had  been  appointed  on  August 
13th  to  practically  take  the  place  of  the  now  useless  Select  Commit- 
tee.  It  was  composed  of  three  well-known  Judges — the  Hon.  Charles 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  411 

Dewey  Day,  the  Hon.  Antolne  Polette  and  the  Hon.  James  Robert 
Gowan.  They  presented  a  Report  to  the  Governor-General  on  Octo- 
ber 17th  containing  a  summary  of  the  evidence  taken  under  oath  and 
His  Excellency  at  once  summoned  Parliament  to  consider  it.  Mr. 
Mackenzie,  as  leader  of  the  Liberal  Opposition,  promptly  moved  a 
Resolution  of  "  severe  censure  "  and  a  debate  followed  which  teemed 
,  with  dramatic  incidents  and  was  permeated  by  a  sullen  sentiment  of 
Conservative  dissatisfaction.  On  November  3rd,  Sir  John  Macdonald 
delivered  a  defence  and  explanation  of  four  hours'  duration  and,  if 
any  single  speech  could  have  saved  the  situation,  it  would  have  done 
so.  But  he  saw  that  the  feeling  had  grown  too  strong  for  even  his 
personality  to  overcome  and  he  prevented  the  passage  of  the  vote  of 
censure  by  retirement  from  office. 

THE  MACKENZIE  GOVERNMENT 

Mr.  Alexander  Mackenzie,  a  clear-headed  Scotchman  who  had 
risen  from  the  humble  labours  of  a  stone-mason  to  the  high  functions 
of  a  legislator,  and  whose  character  is  one  of  the  most  honest  and 
straightforward  in  Canadian  political  history,  became  Prime  Minister 
on  November  7th.  With  him  in  the  new  Ministry  were  the  Hon. 
A.  A.  Dorion,  the  sturdy  leader  of  Quebec  Liberalism — soon  to 
become  Chief  Justice  and  to  adorn  for  many  years  the  Bench  of  his 
native  Province  ;  the  Hon.  Richard  J.  Cartwright,  a  one-time  Conserv- 
ative and  destined  to  be  remembered  as  the  Canadian  embodiment 
of  clear,  cold,  cutting  oratory  of  a  type  which  combined  the  culture 
of  an  English  gentleman  with  the  occasional  savagery  of  a  back- 
wood's  Indian;  the  Hon.  Luc  Letellier  de  St.  Just,  a  typical  grand 
seigneur  of  Quebec ;  the  Hon.  Albert  J.  Smith  who,  in  New  Bruns- 
wick had  fought  Confederation  as  Dorion  had  in  Quebec  ;  the  Hon. 
L.  S.  Huntington,  the  hero  of  the  moment  and  destined  to  practically 
drop  out  of  Canadian  history  and  polititics  a  few  years  later  ;  and  the 
Hon.  Edward  Blake,  a  man  possessed  of  remarkable  legal  acumen,  of 


4ia  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

great  abilities  which  never  reached  their  higher  possibihties  of  devel- 
opment, of  political  attainments  which  did  not  include  the  essential  of 
popularity  and  the  quality  of  tact,  of  oratorical  powers  which  were 
great  in  the  presentation  of  accumulated  logic  but  very  weak  in  the 
faculty  of  carrying  popular  conviction.  Parliament  was  dissolved  on 
January  2,  1874,  the  new  Ministry  swept  the  country  and  remained 
in  power  until  1878.  Sir  John  Macdonald,  despite  his  willingness  to 
resign,  was  maintained  in  his  position  as  leader  of  the  Conservative 
party  and,  after  a  two  years  interlude  of  practical  rest,  went  to  work 
upon  lines  which  were  to  once  more  carry  him  back  to  office — this 
time  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

George  Brown,  who  had  been  beaten  in  the  elections  of  1867 
and  had  been  called  to  the  Senate  in  1873,  was  now  practically  out  of 
politics  and  so  remained — except  through  the  great  influence  of  his 
paper — until  the  miserable  murder  in  1880  which  removed  his  sincere 
and  strenuous  personality  from  the  life  of  Canada.  Many  other 
changes  had  also  taken  place  in  the  personnel  of  politics.  Sir  Francis 
Hincks,  after  a  brief  interval  of  power  as  Finance  Minister  under  Sir 
John  Macdonald,  had  retired  into  private  life  ;  John  Sandfield  Mac- 
donald had  become  the  first  Premier  of  Ontario,  been  defeated  after  a 
few  years  of  economical  administration  and  shortly  afterwards  had 
passed  away  ;  Oliver  Mowat  had  come  down  from  the  Bench  in  1872 
and  taken  the  Premiership  of  Ontario  which  he  was  destined  to  hold 
for  twenty-four  years  amidst  an  ever-increasing  reputation  for  shrewd- 
ness and  skill  in  managing  men;  Joseph  Howe  had  passed  away  in 
Nova  Scotia  and  Charles  Tupper  become  the  undisputed  Conserva- 
tive leader  of  all  the  Maritime  Provinces;  Hiram  Blanchard,  William 
Annand,  P.  C.  Hill,  S.  H.  Holmes,  succeeded  each  other  as  Premiers 
of  Nova  Scotia  up  to  the  days  when  John  S.  D.  Thompson  and  W.  S. 
Fielding  came  to  the  front;  A.  R.  Wetmore,  George  E.  King  and  J. 
J.  Fraser   came   to   the  surface  of   affairs  in   New  Brunswick  while 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  413 

Wilmot  and  Tilley  and  Chandler  retired  successively  to  the  cool 
shades  of  Government  House  at  Fredericton  ;  in  far  away  British 
Columbia  J.  F.  McCreight,  Amor  de  Cosmos,  A.  C.  Elliot,  George 
A.  Walkem,  Robert  Beaven,  William  Smithe,  A.  E.  B.  Davie  and 
John  Robson  succeeded  each  other  as  the  head  of  Ministries  which  it 
would  be  exceedingly  hard  to  politically  define. 

In  all  the  Provinces  constructive  difficulties  and  constitutional 
problems  were  bound  to  arise,  and  did  arise,  from  time  to  time.  In 
Ontario  they  took  the  form  of  a  boundary  question  with  Manitoba 
which  was  settled  by  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Imperial  Privy 
Council  in  favour  of  the  older  Province  ;  of  questions  of  jurisdiction 
over  rivers  and  streams,  of  the  right  to  prohibit  the  sale  and  manu- 
facture of  intoxicants,  of  the  power  to  appoint  Queen's  Counsel  and 
similar  subjects.  In  most  of  these  cases  the  contention  of  the  Province 
was  sustained.  I  n  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  chief  issue  thus  raised  was 
the  New  Brunswick  School  question.  In  April,  1871,  the  Legislature 
of  that  Province  practically  abolished  Roman  Catholic  Separate 
Schools  and  organized  its  system  upon  a  non-sectarian  basis.  The 
minority  appealed  through  the  various  Courts  to  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee where,  finally,  the  appeal  was  dismissed.  Then  they  went  into 
the  political  arena  and  in  May,  1872,  a  stormy  debate  took  place  at 
Ottawa  without  any  other  result  than  the  positive  refusal  of  the 
Dominion  Government  to  intervene  in  the  matter. 

The  most  significant  of  all  these  earlier  controversies,  however, 
was  the  constitutional  one  created  by  the  dismissal,  on  March  4,1878, 
of  the  De  Boucherville  Ministry  in  Quebec.  The  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, M.  Letellier  de  St.  Just,  could  not  get  on  with  his  advisers  and, 
therefore,  dismissed  them  while  in  possession  of  a  majority  in  the 
Legislature.  He  called  in  Henri  Gustave  Joly,  who  assumed  respon- 
sibility for  the  action  and  managed  to  hold  office  for  over  a  year. 
The  constitutional  principle  seems  to  have  been  met   fully  by  the 


412  POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 

great  abilities  which  never  reached  their  higher  possibiHties  of  devel- 
opment, of  political  attainments  which  did  not  include  the  essential  of 
popularity  and  the  quality  of  tact,  of  oratorical  powers  which  were 
great  in  the  presentation  of  accumulated  logic  but  very  weak  in  the 
faculty  of  carrying  popular  conviction.  Parliament  was  dissolved  on 
January  2,  1874,  the  new  Ministry  swept  the  country  and  remained 
in  power  until  1878.  Sir  John  Macdonald,  despite  his  willingness  to 
resign,  was  maintained  in  his  position  as  leader  of  the  Conservative 
party  and,  after  a  two  years  interlude  of  practical  rest,  went  to  work 
upon  lines  which  were  to  once  more  carry  him  back  to  ofifice — this 
time  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

George  Brown,  who  had  been  beaten  in  the  elections  of  1867 
and  had  been  called  to  the  Senate  in  1873,  was  now  practically  out  of 
politics  and  so  remained — except  through  the  great  influence  of  his 
paper — until  the  miserable  murder  in  1880  which  removed  his  sincere 
and  strenuous  personality  from  the  life  of  Canada.  Many  other 
changes  had  also  taken  place  in  the  personnel  of  politics.  Sir  Francis 
Hincks,  after  a  brief  interval  of  power  as  Finance  Minister  under  Sir 
John  Macdonald,  had  retired  into  private  life  ;  John  Sandfield  Mac- 
donald had  become  the  first  Premier  of  Ontario,  been  defeated  after  a 
few  years  of  economical  administration  and  shortly  afterwards  had 
passed  away  ;  Oliver  Mowat  had  come  down  from  the  Bench  in  1872 
and  taken  the  Premiership  of  Ontario  which  he  was  destined  to  hold 
for  twenty-four  years  amidst  an  ever-increasing  reputation  for  shrewd- 
ness and  skill  in  managing  men;  Joseph  Howe  had  passed  away  in 
Nova  Scotia  and  Charles  Tupper  become  the  undisputed  Conserva- 
tive leader  of  all  the  Maritime  Provinces;  Hiram  Blanchard,  William 
Annand,  P.  C.  Hill,  S.  H.  Holmes,  succeeded  each  other  as  Premiers 
of  Nova  Scotia  up  to  the  days  when  John  S.  D.  Thompson  and  W.  S. 
Fielding  came  to  the  front ;  A.  R.  Wetmore,  George  E.  King  and  J. 
J.  Fraser   came   to   the  surface  of   affairs  in   New  Brunswick  while 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  413 

Wilmot  and  Tilley  and  Chandler  retired  successively  to  the  cool 
shades  of  Government  House  at  Fredericton  ;  in  far  away  British 
Columbia  J.  F.  McCreight,  Amor  de  Cosmos,  A.  C.  Elliot,  George 
A.  Walkem,  Robert  Beaven,  William  Smithe,  A.  E.  B.  Davie  and 
John  Robson  succeeded  each  other  as  the  head  of  Ministries  which  it 
would  be  exceedingly  hard  to  politically  define. 

In  all  the  Provinces  constructive  difficulties  and  constitutional 
problems  were  bound  to  arise,  and  did  arise,  from  time  to  time.  In 
Ontario  they  took  the  form  of  a  boundary  question  with  Manitoba 
which  was  settled  by  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Imperial  Privy 
Council  in  favour  of  the  older  Province  ;  of  questions  of  jurisdiction 
over  rivers  and  streams,  of  the  right  to  prohibit  the  sale  and  manu- 
facture of  intoxicants,  of  the  power  to  appoint  Queen's  Counsel  and 
similar  subjects.  In  most  of  these  cases  the  contention  of  the  Province 
was  sustained.  In  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  chief  issue  thus  raised  was 
the  New  Brunswick  School  question.  In  April,  1871,  the  Legislature 
of  that  Province  practically  abolished  Roman  Catholic  Separate 
Schools  and  organized  its  system  upon  a  non-sectarian  basis.  The 
minority  appealed  through  the  various  Courts  to  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee where,  finally,  the  appeal  was  dismissed.  Then  they  went  into 
the  political  arena  and  in  May,  1872,  a  stormy  debate  took  place  at 
Ottawa  without  any  other  result  than  the  positive  refusal  of  the 
Dominion  Government  to  intervene  in  the  matter. 

The  most  significant  of  all  these  earlier  controversies,  however, 
was  the  constitutional  one  created  by  the  dismissal,  on  March  4,1878, 
of  the  De  Boucherville  Ministry  in  Quebec.  The  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, M.  Letellier  de  St.  Just,  could  not  get  on  with  his  advisers  and, 
therefore,  dismissed  them  while  in  possession  of  a  majority  in  the 
Legislature.  He  called  in  Henri  Gustave  Joly,  who  assumed  respon- 
sibility for  the  action  and  managed  to  hold  office  for  over  a  year. 
The  constitutional  principle  seems  to   have  been  met    fully  by  the 


414 


POLITICAL  QUESTIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENl 


Governor  finding  a  Premier  to  shield  his  action.  But  here  came  the 
poHtical  issue — a  much  more  prominent  feature  in  such  a  coup-cC etat. 
Letellier  was  a  Liberal,  his  Minister  was  a  Conservative,  Joly  was  a 
Liberal.  The  Conservatives  were  aggrieved  at  the  dismissal  and 
took  the  old  Liberal  ground  that  it  was  an  infraction  of  the  respon- 
sible government  principle  under  which  a  Governor  is  supposed  to  be 
bound  by  his  advisers  so  long  as  they  possess  a  Parliamentary  major- 
ity. This  was  the  ground  taken  by  Sir  John  Macdonald  at  Ottawa. 
The  Liberal  leaders  there,  however,  took  the  position  that  the  Gov- 
ernor had  been  relieved  of  responsibility  by  his  new  Premier  and  this 
really  seems  to  be  the  true  constitutional  position  and  not  incompati- 
ble with  the  correctness  of  the  other.  The  debate  was  a  bitter  one 
and  M.  Letellier  was  maintained  in  his  place  and  his  policy.  When, 
however,  the  Conservatives  came  into  power  at  Ottawa,  soon  after- 
wards, it  was  inevitable  that  some  action  should  be  taken  and,  despite 
the  objections  of  Lord  Lome  who  believed  that  the  office  of  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor would  thus  be  degraded  to  the  position  of  a  party 
appanage,  Letellier  was  dismissed. 

Incidentally,  this  case  marked  a  change  in  the  functions  of  the 
Governor-General.  The  Marquess  of  Lome,*  who  had  succeeded 
Lord  Dufferin  in  1878,  in  referring  the  proposed  dismissal  to  the  Col- 
onial Office,  had  been  advised  in  reply  that  he  should  follow  the  sug- 
gestions of  his  Government.  This  was,  practically,  the  final  step  in 
making  his  position  a  similar  one,  in  all  the  relations  of  Governor- 
General  to  Cabinet  and  Parliament,  to  that  of  the  Sovereign  in 
England.  Meanwhile,  the  politics  of  Canada  had  been  slowly  improv- 
ing as  the  scope  of  operations  and  public  thought  had  widened. 
They  were  still  essentially  Colonial  and  rather  narrow,  but  were 
steadily  broadening  out  toward    the    Imperial    development    of   the 

*  Lord  Lome  became  Duke  of  Argyll  in  1900  by  the  death  of  his  father.  Lord  Dufferin,  after  serving  as  Viceroy  of 
India  and  in  other  positions  of  great  importance  was  created  Marquess  of  Dufferin  and  Ava.  It  may  also  be  added  that 
Lord  Statoley  of  Preston,  a  later  Governor-General,  became  afterwards  the  i6th  Earl  of  Derby. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
The  National  Policy  of  Protection 

THE  story  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  tariffs,  or  the  ever-present  con- 
troversy between  the  principles  of  free  trade  and  protection, 
is  not  usually  considered  a  subject  of  absorbing  attractiveness. 
Yet,  in  the  case  of  Canada,  the  annals  of  the  "  N.  P.,"  as  it  was  uni- 
versally called  for  years,  present  features  of  really  popular  and  per- 
manent interest.  They  include  the  consideration  of  important  under- 
lying movements  connected  with  the  birth  and  travail  of  a  new  coun- 
try and  an  incipient  national  sentiment.  They  were  vitally  concerned 
with  the  personal  success  or  failure  of  a  great  man  and  the  rise  into 
prolonged  power  of  the  party  which  he  had  been  mainly  instrumental 
in  creating. 

A    TURN    IN    THE    TIDE    OF    CANADIAN    AFFAIRS 

They  marked  the  turn  in  the  tide  from  poverty  to  prosperity, 
from  what  might  be  termed  national  infancy  to  national  boy- 
hood, from  dependence  upon  the  United  States  in  fiscal  matters  to 
comparative  independence,  from  Provincial  looseness  of  tie  and  sepa- 
ration of  interests  to  genuine  co-operation  and  partnership,  from 
smallness  of  popular  view  to  a  wider  horizon  and  greater  individual 
enterprise.  How  far  the  National  Policy  was  instrumental  in  this 
undoubted  development  is  a  still  disputed  point  and  must  remain  so 
under  existing  party  conditions ;  but  as  to  the  present  necessity  for 
a  protective  tariff,  and  the  inferential  necessity  for  its  creation,  there 
seems,  even  now,  to  be  a  pretty  general  assent  in  all  Canadian  parties. 

Following  Confederation   a  somewhat  peculiar  state  of  affairs 

existed  in  the  new  Dominion.     There  was  the  shell  of  a  great  state, 
418 


THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION  419 

the  institutions  and  machinery  of  a  country  which  stretched  in  nomi- 
nal union  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  covered  over  three  miUion  square 
miles  of  territory.  But  the  population  was  thinly  scattered  over  its 
vast  area ;  the  progress  of  national  prosperity  was  somewhat  slow ; 
the  sentiment  of  Canadian  unity  was  decidedly  weak ;  the  Provinces 
leaned  considerably  in  matters  of  trade  interchange,  and  demand 
'  and  supply,  upon  the  States  to  the  south  of  them ;  railway  communi- 
cation between  the  Pacific  and  the  Great  Lakes  had  not  been  estab- 
lished and  seemed  almost  too  great  an  undertaking  for  so  youthful  a 
people ;  and  comparatively  little  exchange  of  thought  or  commerce 
as  yet  passed  between  the  Provinces. 

A    CHANGE    IN    TARIFF    CONDITIONS 

The  tariff  was  at  first  a  uniform  one  of  15  per  cent,  upon  all 
goods  coming  into  the  Dominion,  and  this  average  reduction  of  5  per 
cent,  on  what  had  been  the  tariff  of  the  Canadas,  under  Mr.  Gait's  fiscal 
policy,  was  for  a  time  sufficient  to  prevent  the  market  being  monopo- 
lized by  American  manufactures,  although  it  was  not  sufficient  to  be 
protective  in  the  sense  of  encouraging  home  industry.  It  simply 
enabled  Canadian  manufacturers  to  hold  their  own  during  the  period 
of  Sir  John  Macdonald's  first  Government  from  1867  to  1873. 

The  reason  for  this  condition  of  affairs  and  for  the  change  which 
began  to  show  itself  about  1872  was  the  simple  fact  that  all  the  native 
powers  of  recuperation  ar\d  productive  capacity  which  the  United 
States  possessed  were  required,  in  the  half-dozen  years  following  the 
Civil  War,  for  the  supply  of  its  own  people  and  the  meeting  of  new 
conditions  North  and  South,  in  both  agriculture  and  industry.  Dur- 
ing these  years  the  small  15  per  cent,  tariff  was  enough  to  prevent 
serious  competition  with  the  tiny  and  still  tentative  industrial  devel- 
opment of  Canada.  But  by  the  time  of  the  general  elections  in 
1872  it  was  an  open  secret  that  some  increase  of  duties  would  soon  be 
necessary  and,  although  the  storms  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  "  scandal  " 


420  THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION 

broke  over  and  shattered  the  Ministry — which  had  been  success- 
.  ful  at  the  polls — the  necessity  was  accepted  by  its  Liberal  successor 
and  the  tariff  was  increased  under  Mr.  Mackenzie  to  17^  per  cent. 
At  that  point,  however,  the  Government  stayed  its  hand  and  no 
amount  of  persuasion,  no  cloud  of  discontent  upon  the  horizon, 
growing  in  shadowy  outline  as  the  years  passed  on,  would  move  the 
Government  in  the  direction  of  pure  protection.  American  manu- 
facturers, meanwhile,  had  revived,  prospered  and  then  over-produced. 
They  had  supplied  their  own  market  and  then  turned  to  find  other 
worlds  to  conquer;  and  the  nearest  and  most  exposed  was  the  Canadian 
field. 

Between  1873   and    1878  their  goods  poured  over  the   frontier 
and   beat   down  prices  below  what  the  small   Canadian  firms,  with 
their  limited  production  and  market  and  capital,  could  hope  to  touch. 
Then,  after  the  local  industry  had  collapsed,  prices  were  again  raised 
and  the  American  firm  held  its  captured  market  in  apparently  secure 
shape.     All  over  the  country  this  was  happening  and  even  the  farmer 
began  to  suffer  from  the  inrush  of  American  wheat  and  other  food- 
stuffs.    From  every  side  came  demands  for  a  change  of  policy,  but 
Mr.  Mackenzie  and  Sir   Richard   Cartwright,  his  Finance   Minister, 
were  firm  in  their  view  that  while  a  tariff  might,  and  must  in  this  case, 
be  imposed  for  revenue  and  at  uniform  rates  upon  all  kinds  of  goods 
coming  into  the  country,  it  was  unwise,  retrogressive  and  injurious 
to  single  out  industries  for  special  protection,  or  for  the  Government 
to  "spoon-feed"  any  individual  interest  in  the  country. 

Sir  John  Macdonald,  however,  was  quick  to  see  not  only  the 
rising  sentiment  of  the  people  and  his  own  opportunity  but,  it  may 
surely  be  believed,  a  possibility  of  benefiting  the  community  itself. 
With  him  practice  was  always  superior  to  theory  and  the  practical 
needs  of  the  moment  more  important  than  the  vagaries  of  academic 
schools  of  thought.     Nor  was  he  inconsistent,  as  his  opponents  have 


THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION 


421 


frequently  claimed.  He  had  supported  the  protective  pdlicy  of  Gait 
in  the  old  Canadian  Assembly  of  1858-g  and  had  spoken  in  favour  of 
helping  local  industries,  at  Hamilton  in  1861,  and  elsewhere  in  other 
years.  In  1876  the  issue  was  coming  to  a  head.  A  Commission  of 
Inquiry  into  the  existing  condition  of  affairs  had  been  appointed  and 
under  the  Chairmanship  of  Mr.  David  Mills  presented  an  academic 
Report  admitting  the  financial  stringency  and  industrial  depression 
but  condemning  the  adoption  of  Protection  as  a  cure  on  the  ground 
that  such  a  system  would  diminish  the  consumption  of  foreign  goods, 
would  lessen  the  revenue  by  $9,000,000,  would  increase  the  price 
of  home-manufactured  goods,  would  impose  a  heavy  tax  on  the 
consumer  and  was,  generally,  a  proposition  to  relieve  distress  by  the 
re-distribution  of  property. 

SIR   JOHN    MACDONALD    TAKES    UP    THE    QUESTION 

Sir  John  Macdonald  and  the  Conservatives  accepted  the  gauntlet 
thus  thrown  down  and  had,  indeed,  anticipated  it  in  the  following 
motion  presented  to  the  House  on  March  loth  by  the  Tory  leader  : 

"That  this  House  regrets  that  His  Excellency  the  Governor-General  has  not 
been  advised  to  recommend  to  Parliament  a  measure  for  the  re-adjustment  of  the  tariff 
which  would  not  only  aid  in  alleviating  the  stagnation  of  business  but  would  also  afford 
fitting  encouragement  and  protection  to  the  struggling  manufactures  and  industries  as 
well  as  to  the  agricultural  products  of  the  country. " 

The  proposal  was,  of  course,  voted  down  by  the  Government's 
majority,  but  the  issue  was  clearly  presented  and,  if  possible,  made 
more  so  by  succeeding  Resolutions  of  which  the  most  important  is  that 
of  March  7,  1877.  It  was  proposed  by  Sir  John  and  declared  that 
*'  the  welfare  of  Canada  requires  the.  adoption  of  a  National  Policy  , 
which,  by  a  judicious  re-adjustment  of  the  TarifT,  will  benefit  and 
foster  the  agricultural,  the  mining,  the  manufacturing  and  other  inter- 
ests of  the  Dominion." 

It  was  defeated  by  forty-nine    majority,  and  then  Dr.  George 
T.   Orton    proposed  a  Resolution    declaring    that    the    adoption  of 
23 


422  THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION 

such  a  policy  would  retain  the  people  in  Canada  and  lessen  the 
growing  migration  to  the  United  States ;  would  restore  prosperity 
to  the  now  struggling  industries  of  the  country  ;  would  prevent 
Canada  from  being  any  longer  a  mere  sacrifice  market  for  American 
products  ;  would  encourage  and  develop  an  active  trade  between  the 
Provinces  ;  and,  by  moving  in  the  direction  of  reciprocity  of  tariffs 
with  the  United  States,  would  help  in  eventually  procuring  reciprocity 
of  trade.  Upon  this  motion,  which  was  defeated  by  1 14  to  ']']  votes, 
the  ensuing  elections  were  chiefly  fought. 

Meanwhile,  matters  went  from  bad  to  worse  in  a  commercial  and 
financial  sense.  Whatever  the  value  of  the  American  market  it  was 
absolutely  closed  to  Canadian  productions  in  most  of  the  important 
lines  while  American  manufacturers  and  producers  had  a  full  sweep 
of  the  Dominion.  American  wheat,  rye,  barley,  Indian  corn,  wheat- 
flour,  oatmeal,  coal,  salt,  wool,  pig-iron,  iron  and  steel-rails,  bricks 
and  flax  had  free  entry  into  Canada,  while  similar  Canadian  products 
entering  the  United  States  were  charged  high  duties — from  wheat  at 
20  cents  a  bushel  to  steel-rails  at  $25  a  ton.  Home-made  products 
in  Canada  were  steadily  driven  to  the  wall  while  the  poverty-stricken 
people  could  no  longer  afford  to  import  British  goods  which  went 
down  in  bulk-value  from  $68,000,000  in  1873,  to  $37,000,000  in  1878. 
As  with  the  industrial  and  mercantile  interests  so  with  the  agricul- 
tural. In  1878  the  Dominion  actually  imported  $17,909,000  worth  of 
flour,  grain,  animals  and  other  agricultural  products  from  the  United 
States  in  competition  with  home-grown  productions. 

The  Conservative  battle-cry  became  one  of  "  Canada  for  the 
Canadians  "  and,  under  all  the  circumstances,  it  is  not  wonderful  that 
the  slogan  attached  to  the  side  of  Sir  John  Macdonald  much  of  the 
best  and  brainiest  support  in  the  community.  Newspaper  men  found 
something  to  discuss  in  the  broad  question  of  protection  better  than 
many  of  the  small  and  local  issues  of  the  past  and  keen  spirits  such 


THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION  423 

as  John  Maclean — who  had  long  been  urging  such  a  policy — R.  W. 
Phipps,  Thomas  White,  C.  H.  Mackintosh  and  Nicholas  Flood  Davin 
enthusiastically  advocated  a  new  and  more  national  system.  Even 
Mr.  Goldwin  Smith — the  ever  caustic  publicist — was  stirred  with  a 
momentary  political  ambition  and,  in  1878,  is  stated  to  have  sought  a 
Conservative  nomination  and  did  certainly  support  the  proposed 
National  Policy.  Charles  Carroll  Colby,  afterwards  a  Minister  of 
the  Crown,  wrote  a  powerful  pamphlet  in  its  support,  Mr.  D.  L. 
McPherson  issued  a  number  of  similar  contributions  to  the  discussion. 
Dr.  Tupper,  with  all  the  force  of  his  strenuous  oratory,  joined  Sir 
John  Macdonald  on  a  myriad  platforms  and  did  great  service  to  the 
cause  ;  while  in  July,  1878,  Mr.  S.  L.  Tilley  descended  from  the 
Lieutenant-Governorship  of  New  Brunswick  and  contributed  his 
fluent,  silvery  speech  and  pleasant  personality  to  the  issue  and  the 
support  of  the  Opposition. 

The  Government  had  been  also  re-inforced  by  the  logical,  argu- 
mentative faculty  of  David  Mills  and  the  pleasant,  persuasive  elo- 
quence of  Wilfrid  Laurier.  Mr.  Mackenzie  had  been  strengthened 
in  health  and  reputation  by  a  visit  to  Scotland  and  by  the  splendid 
reception  he  had  been  given  in  his  native  place  as  well  as  by  the 
sense  and  patriotism  of  his  speeches  on  the  soil  of  his  ancestors. 
With  Cartwright,  Huntington,  Mills  and  others,  he  went  through  the 
country  in  1877  and  1878  everywhere  nailing  the  flag  of  a  revenue 
tariff  to  the  mast-head  of  his  party's  fate.  It  was  a  striking  struggle 
in  every  sense  of  the  word  and  the  sweeping  success  of  Sir  John 
Macdonald  was  not  less  interesting  because  of  the  surprise  felt  by  his 
opponents  at  the  result.  Mr.  Mackenzie  at  once  resigned  and,  on 
October  17,  1878,  the  new  Conservative  Ministry  was  formed — one 
which  lasted  with  variations  in  leadership  and  fluctuations  in  member- 
ship until  1896.  Sir  John  Macdonald  was,  of  course.  Premier,  the 
Hon.   James  McDonald,  afterwards    Chief  Justice  of   Nova   Scotia, 


424  THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION 

was  Minister  of  Justice,  Sir  S.  Leonard  Tilley  *  was  Minister  of 
Finance  and  retained  the  post  until  1885,  Si''  Charles  Tupper  was 
Minister  of  Railways  and  Canals  and  held  the  position  until  the  same 
date,  Sir  Hector  L.  Langevin  was  Postmaster-General  and  afterwards, 
for  many  years,  Minister  of  Public  Works.  Other  members  of  the 
Government  were  L.  F.  R.  Masson,  Mackenzie  Bowell,  J.  C.  Pope, 
L.  F.  G.  Baby,  John  O'Connor,  Sir  Alexander  Campbell  and  R.  D. 
Wilmot. 

THE    NEW    TARIFF 

During  the  Session  of  1879  Parliament  dealt  with  the  somewhat 
vague  pledges  of  the  "National  Policy"  platform  and,  under  the 
direction  of  Sir  Leonard  Tilley,  did  it  thoroughly.  The  tariff  pre- 
sented in  the  budget  speech  of  this  year  was  distinctly  protective  to 
every  industry  which  was  deemed  capable  of  being  encouraged  and, 
from  the  general  principles  of  the  important  fiscal  changes  then 
announced  there  have,  in  twenty  years,  been  only  two  serious  depar- 
tures— the  iron  and  steel  policy  of  Sir  Charles  Tupper  and  the  Pre- 
ferential tariff  of  Mr.  Fieldino-.  The  first  of  these  was  an  extension 
of  the  protective  principle,  the  other  was  a  modification  of  it  in  form 
without  seriously  affecting  it  in  detail.  Of  course,  the  budget  and  its 
important  fiscal  proposals  did  not  pass  without  strong  opposition. 
The  Hon.  Alexander  Mackenzie — soon  to  be  succeeded  in  the  Lib- 
eral leadership  by  Mr.  Edward  Blake — moved  in  amendment  on 
April  7th  : 

"  That  while  this  House  is  prepared  to  make  ample  provision  for  the  require- 
ments of  the  pubhc  service  and  the  maintenance  of  the  pubhc  credit  it  regards  the 
scheme  now  under  consideration  as  calculated  to  distribute  unequally,  and  therefore 
unjustly,  the  burdens  of  taxation  ;  to  divert  capital  from  its  national  and  most  profita- 
ble employment ;  to  benefit  special  classes  at  the  expense  of  the  whole  community  ; 
tends  towards  rendering  futile  the  costly  and  persistent  efforts  of  the  country  to  obtain 

*  In  1877  Richard  J.  Cartwright,  Samuel  Leonard  Tilley,  Charles  Tupper,  William  P.   Howland  and  Alexander 
Campbell  were  knighted  with  the  insignia  of  K.  C.  M.  G. 


SIR  SANDFORD  FLEMING,  K.C.M.G..  LL.D. 


SIR  JOSEPH  HICKSON,  KNT. 
General  Manager  of  the  (irand  Trunk  Railv 


SIR  WILLIAM  E.  LOGAN,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

First  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey  of  Canada 


SIR  HUGH  ALLAN,  KNT. 


THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION 


427 


a  share  in  the  immense  and  growing  carrying  trade  of  this  continent  ;  and  to  create  an 
antagonism  between  the  commercial  policy  of  the  Empire  and  that  of  Canada  that 
might  lead  to  consequences  to  be  deeply  deplored. " 

The  Resolution  was,  of  course,  defeated  on  a  party  vote  and  by 
a  large  majority — 136  to  53.  From  this  time,  onwards,  the  attacks  of 
the  Opposition  upon  the  National  Policy  were  continuous  and  became 
more  and  more  acrid  as  the  years  passed  on.  Until  1884,  however, 
no  more  clearly  defined  motions  were  submitted  to  the  House  of 
Commons  except  in  connection  with  detail  duties,  such  as  those  on 
coal  and  breadstuffs  and  lumber,  proposed  by  Mr.  Laurier  in  1882, 
and  one  regarding  pig-iron  and  other  kindred  products  by  Mr.  Isaac 
Burpee  in  the  same  Session.  After  1884,  the  Liberal  policy  and  fiscal 
proposals  made  Reciprocity  with  the  United  States  their  central  theme. 

The  story  of  the  National  Policy  and  its  results  has  been  told  a 
myriad  times  upon  Canadian  platforms,  from  many  standpoints  and 
with  infinitely  varied  data.  Criticism  and  censure  have  been  as 
plentifully  showered  upon  it  and  its  makers  as  have  appreciation  and 
admiration.  To  do  justice  to  the  subject  it  should  be  looked  at  with 
liberal  views  and  from  a  wide  outlook.  The  policy  is  generally  limi- 
ted in  popular  conception  to  the  increase  of  duties  in  1879  from  175^ 
to  an  average  of  about  30  per  cent,  and  to  the  consequent  encourage- 
ment of  industrial  development  through  the  application  of  those  duties 
to  the  protection  of  specified  interests.  It  had,  in  reality,  a  far  wider 
range.  Without  the  redundant  revenues  and  increased  credit  which 
followed  the  Canadian  Pacific  could  not  have  been  completed  for 
very  many  years ;  the  North-West  and  British  Columbia  would  have 
remained  isolated  dependencies  leaning  upon  American  support ; 
ocean  communication  with  the  Orient  would  have  remained  a  dream 
and  inter-provincial  trade  an  unknown  factor.  Hence,  practically,  the 
National  Policy  covered  a  very  wide  field — one  far  beyond  the  con- 
ception of  it  as  being  a  mere  matter  of  increased  fiscal  duties. 


428  THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION 

There  can  be  no  dispute  as  to  what  followed  the  tariff  changes 
of  1879,  though  there  is  much  dispute  as  to  the  degree  of  responsi- 
bility. Confidence  was  restored  and  enterprise  revived.  Soup 
kitchens,  which  had  been  established  for  paupers  and  the  unemployed 
in  large  centres,  disappeared  and  "good  times"  came  as  if  by  magic. 
Giving  every  credit  in  this  latter  respect  to  the  easier  circumstances 
of  the  people  in  the  United  States  at  this  period  it  still  seems  evi- 
dent that  had  the  tariff  gates  remained  down,  the  prosperity  on  the 
other  side  of  the  line  could  have  only  meant  increased  production 
there  and  larger  exports  of  goods  and  products  to  the  Canadian 
market.  Revival  here,  would,  consequently,  have  been  very  slow,  if, 
indeed,  it  had  come  at  all.  Leaving  probabilities  and  assumptions 
aside,  however,  it  is  clear  that  a  new  spirit  did  develop  in  the  young 
community  and  that  hopelessness  and  listlessness  in  business  disap- 
peared to  a  very  great  extent.  Exports  grew  from  ^79,323,000  in 
1878  to  $121,013,000  in  1896;  imports  expanded  from  $93,089,000  to 
$118,011,000;  trade  with  Great  Britain  grew  from  $83,089,000  to 
$99,670,000  and  with  the  United  States  from  $73,876,000  to  $103,022,- 
000.  With  France  and  Germany,  with  South  American  countries 
and  China  and  Japan,  commerce  steadily  developed. 

Manufacturing  interests  increased  and  improved  in  a  most  marked 
manner.  Between  1881  and  1891,  according  to  the  census  returns, 
the  number  of  establishments  increased  by  26,000,  the  capital  invested 
by  $189,000,000,  the  number  of  employes  by  115,000,  the  wages  paid 
by  $41,000,000,  thevalueof  the  manufactured  product  by  $166,000,000. 
The  revenue  rose  from  $22,517,000  in  1879  to  $38,579,000  in  1891, 
while  between  those  years  $77,000,000  were  expended  upon  railways, 
$22,000,000  upon  canals  and  waterway  improvements  and  $25,000,000 
upon  public  buildings  and  public  works.  Meantime,  the  debt  of  the 
country,  also,  increased  from  $140,000,000  in  1878  to  $253,000,000  in 
1895,   and  the  taxation   per  head  from  $4.37  to  $5.02.     The  large 


THE  NATIONAL  POLICY  OF  PROTECTION 


429 


imports  of  American  farm  products  were  greatly  restricted  and  the 
export  of  cattle,  sheep  and  provisions  to  Great  Britain  grew  from  a 
practically  stationary  figure  of  $7,cxx),ooo  in  1879  to  $28,045,000  in 
1895.  Manitoba  and  the  North-West  steadily  developed  and  villages 
grew  into  cities  whilst  the  trade  between  the  Provinces  came  to  exceed 
$100,000,000  in  value. 

Of  course,  all  this  admitted  expansion  was  not  without  corre- 
sponding diminution  in  certain  lines  of  trade  ;  suffering  from  external 
influences  such  as  the  McKinley  tariff ;  ups  and  downs  in  financial 
feeling  and  popular  prosperity.  But  there  has  never  since  1878  been 
any  condition  even  comparable  with  the  state  of  affairs  then.  In  the 
general  elections  of  1882  and  1887  and  1891  the  chief  issue  before  the 
people  was  the  tariff — though  complicated  in  the  latter  years  by  the 
Riel  question  and  the  inevitable  turmoil  of  a  racial  and  religious  cry. 
Whether  the  Liberal  party  in  these  years  was  led  by  Edward  Blake, 
or  Wilfrid  Laurier  ;  whether  it  supported  a  revenue  tariff  as  in  1882, 
incidental  protection  as  in  1887,  or  unrestricted  reciprocity  as  in  1891; 
the  real  issue  was  always  the  tariff.  The  National  Policy,  or  some- 
thing else,  was  the  question  before  the  people  and  on  each  occasion 
the  former  won.  In  1896,  the  Manitoba  School  matter  over-shadowed 
everything  and  the  prolonged  tariff  controversy  was  allowed  to  lapse 
into  the  limbo  of  forgotten  issues. 

A  tariff  for  protection  as  well  as  for  revenue  was  then  finally 
accepted  as  settled  and  the  issue  of  the  future  came  to  hinge,  not  upon 
the  time-honoured  and  world-wide  battle  between  free  trade  and  protec- 
tion, but  upon  the  development  and  details  of  an  Imperial  trade  policy 
in  which  sentiment  was  to  play  a  prominent  part  and  a  compromise 
of  hitherto  opposing  principles  prove  the  only  possible  settlement. 


CHAPTER  XXII 
Construction  of  the  Canadian   Pacific  Railway 

WHATEVER  the  effects  of  the  National  Policy  in  an  economic 
sense,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  increased  the  revenues 
by  thirteen  million  dollars  in  three  years,  decreased  the  busi- 
ness failures  from  $29,000,000,  in  1879,  to  $5,700,000  in  1881,  steadily 
developed  inter-provincial  trade  and  mutual  interests,  and  witnessed 
during  its  first  four  years  of  life  an  increase  of  $77,000,000  in  the 
external  commerce  of  the  country.  Of  course,  there  were  subsidiary 
causes  for  this  sudden  development  of  good  times,  but  the  people  as  a 
whole  were  inclined  to  credit  the  National  Policy  with  much  of  the 
expansion  which  followed  its  establishment. 

TWO    FACTORS    OF    INDIVIDUAL    AND     PUBLIC    SELF-CONFIDENCE 

Two  facts  are  undoubted  amidst  all  the  conflicting  confusion  of 
current  fiscal  argument.  They  were  really  interchangeable  and  included 
the  restoration  of  public  confidence  in  private  and  public  enterprises 
of  a  financial  character,  and  the  growth  of  a  national  sentiment  which 
made  the  building  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  a  possibility. 
Without  these  two  factors  of  individual  and  public  self-confidence 
neither  the  revenues,  nor  the  credit,  nor  the  sentiment  of  the  country, 
would  have  permitted  the  carrying  out  of  so  huge  an  undertaking. 

Sir  John  Macdonald  had  tried  to  initiate  the  enterprise  in  1873 
by  means  of  private  companies  of  capitalists  and  had  failed  in  the 
midst  of  an  almost  obscuring  cloud  of  scandal  and  slander.  Mr. 
Mackenzie's  Government  had  endeavoured  also  to  keep  the  pact 
entered  into  with  British  Columbia  when  that  Province  joined 
Confederation,  in  1872,  upon  the  promise  of  a  railway  over  the  vast 
430 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 


431 


prairies  and  sea  of  mountains  which  lay  between  it  and  the  rest  of 
Canada.  He  had  developed  a  scheme  of  gradual  and  economical 
building,  under  which  contracts  were  let  by  the  Government  for  bits 
of  road  between  given  bodies  of  water  and  over  the  easier  stretches  of 
land.  There  was  no  continuity  of  work  or  completeness  of  policy. 
The  difficult  parts  of  the  undertaking,  such  as  the  route  around  the 
north  shore  of  Lake  Superior  and  through  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
were  conveniently  postponed  and  the  lakes  on  the  route  were  to  be 
used  as  navigable  portions  of  the  line  instead  of  the  railway  being 
taken  around  them.  When  Sir  John  Macdonald  came  into  power 
again,  in  1878,  he  found  that  solitary  lines  of  railway,  scattered  here 
and  there,  were  completed,  or  under  way,  but  were  without  bond  of 
union  or  any  very  practical  efficiency. 

THE    IMPORTANCE   OF    THIS   CONTINENTAL    ROUTE 

As  soon  as  other  matters  permitted,  attention  was  turned  to  the 
necessity  of  more  rapid  and  organized  action.  The  public  had  at 
last  grasped  to  some  extent  the  importance  of  this  continental  route 
to  the  unity  and  expansion  of  the  Dominion  ;  British  Columbia  was 
pressing  for  the  carrying  out  of  Federal  pledges  ;  and  the  acceptance 
of  the  new  National  Policy  tariff  as  presented  to  Parliament  by  Sir 
Leonard  Tilley  in  the  Session  of  1879  had  cleared  the  political 
path  and  promised  to  provide  steadily  growing  revenues  to  the  Gov- 
ernment. Some  efforts  had  been  made  in  the  meantime  to  carry  on 
Mackenzie's  plan  and  further  small  contracts  had  been  actually 
entered  into.  But,  in  1879,  the  opportunity  presented  itself  for  a 
renewal  of  the  old  policy  of  1873  under  stronger  and  better  auspices. 
A  small  Syndicate  of  Canadian  and  American  capitalists  had  been 
latterly  operating  the  St.  Paul  and  Pacific  Railway — a  line  running 
through  Minnesota  to  the  international  border  and  connecting  there 
with  the  Pembina  and  Winnipeg  branch  of  the  proposed  continental 
road. 


432  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 

With  these  men  and  some  others,  including  George  Stephen, 
Duncan  Mclntyre  and  Donald  A.  Smith,  of  Montreal,  R.  B.  Angus, 
of  the  Bank  of  Montreal,  J.  S.  Kennedy,  of  New  York,  Morton,  Rose 
&  Company,  of  London,  and  James  J.  Hill,  of  American  railway 
fame,  the  Government  commenced  negotiations  for  the  assumption  of 
the  greater  enterprise.  Sir  Charles  Tupper,  who  was  Minister  of 
Railways  from  1879  ^^  1884,  impressed  his  usual  energy  and  force 
upon  the  matter  and,  on  May  10,  1879,  moved  a  series  of  Resolutions 
in  the  House  of  Commons  embodying  the  policy  of  the  Government 
and  promising  100,000,000  acres  of  North- West  land  to  any  Com- 
pany taking  up  the  work.  A  contract  was  finally  made  with  the  syndi- 
cate for  the  building  of  the  line  and  for  the  payment  by  Government 
of  $25,000,000  in  cash,  with  a  grant  of  25,000,000  acres  of  land  in 
alternate  lots  along  the  route.  On  December  13,  1880;  SirC.  Tupper 
moved  the  acceptance  of  the  arrangement  by  Parliament  and  fought 
the  measure  through  the  House  in  long  and  able  and  forceful  speeches. 

But  this  is  anticipating  the  narrative.  It  had  seemed  possible  in 
1873,  after  the  fall  of  the  Macdonald  Government,  that  the  railway 
project  might  fall  with  it.  The  new  Government  and  the  Liberal 
party  did  not,  certainly,  appear  enthusiastic  over  what  they  truly  felt 
to  be  the  assumption  of  vast  responsibilities.  They  lacked  faith  to 
some  extent  in  the  future  and  this  is  the  worst  that  can  be  said  of 
their  attitude  and  subsequent  policy.  The  project  was  an  enormous 
one  for  a  Government  to  assume  which  had  only  some  scattered 
and  not  wealthy  Provinces  to  depend  upon  and  a  population  of  less 
than  5,000,000  at  its  back.  Moreover,  the  Liberal  party  had  never 
approved  of  the  pledge  toBritish  Columbia  and  would  have  very  natur- 
ally been  glad  of  relief  from  the  burden  of  the  now  evident  obligation. 
Seeing  this  situation  at  Ottawa,  Lieutenant-Governor  Sir  J.  W. 
Trutch,  of  British  Columbia,  had  hastened  on  behalf  of  his  Govern- 
ment to  register,  in  1873,  a  protest  against  further  delay. 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 


433 


Much  correspondence  followed  and  in  February,  1874,  the  Mac- 
kenzie Government  decided  to  send  a  special  envoy  to  the  distant 
end  of  the  Dominion  in  order  to  ascertain  the  exact  state  of  public 
opinion  in  the  Province  ;  to  see  if  it  were  possible  to  arrange  condi- 
tions under  which  the  railway  might  be  built  and  slowly  completed 
without  reference  to  the  promised  ten  years  of  the  Confederation 
compact ;  to,  in  short,  feel  the  public  pulse  as  to  a  change  in  the  terms 
of  Union.  They  selected  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  J.  D.  Edgar  for  the 
mission  and  armed  him  with  many  letters  and  elaborate  instructions. 
On  the  9th  of  March  he  arrived  in  Victoria  and,  eventually,  sub- 
mitted proposals  which  involved  the  immediate  commencement  and 
rapid  completion  by  the  Dominion  of  a  local  railway  from  Esquimault 
to  Nanaimo,  on  Vancouver  Island ;  the  speedy  settlement  of  the 
route  to  be  followed  by  the  railway  on  the  mainland  ;  the  immediate 
building  of  a  waggon-road  through  the  almost  impassable  mountains 
and  of  a  telegraph  line  across  the  continent ;  the  expenditure  of  a 
minimum  amount  of  $1,500,000  annually  upon  the  road,  within  the 
Rockies,  until  it  was  completed. 

FIRST    STEPS    IN    CONSTRUCTION 

The  discussion  was  fruitless,  whether  because  of  a  lack  of 
diplomacy  and  tact  upon  Mr.  Edgar's  part,  as  one  reputable  historian 
states,*  or  because  the  Provincial  Government  wanted  their  full 
pound  of  flesh.  In  June  the  proposals  were  withdrawn,  the  envoy 
recalled  and  Mr.  George  A.  Walkem,  the  Premier  of  British  Colum- 
bia, went  to  London  to  lay  his  case  before  the  Colonial  Secretary  and 
the  Imperial  authorities.  A  triangular  controversy  followed,  some  of 
it  decidedly  acrimonious  until,  finally,  all  parties  agreed  to  accept  the 
Earl  of  Carnarvon  as  arbitrator  in  the  affair.  His  proposed  terms  of 
settlement  were  submitted  to  Lord  Dufferin  in  a  despatch  dated 
November  17,  1874,  and  maybe  summed  up  as  follows  : 

•  Dr.  George  Stewart.    Canada  Under  the  Administration  of  the  Earl  of  Dufferin. 


434  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 

1.  The  rapid  building  of  the  Nanaimo-Esquimault  Railway. 

2.  The  pressing  of  the  mainland  surveys  and  the  selection  of  a 
definite  route  over  the  mountains  with  all  possible  despatch. 

3.  The  immediate  construction  of  the  waggon-road  and  telegraph 
lines. 

4.  The  minimum  expenditure  of  $2,000,000  a  year  upon  railway 
works,  within  the  Province,  from  the  moment  that  the  surveys  should 
be  completed. 

5.  The  completion  of  the  railway  and  its  readiness  for  traffic, 
from  the  Pacific  sea-board  to  the  western  end  of  Lake  Superior,  by 
December  31,  1890. 

Some  of  the  details  in  this  compromise  were  not  very  acceptable 
to  the  Dominion  Government  but  they  abided  by  the  settlement,  as 
arranged,  and  an  Order-in-Council  was  issued  on  December  i8th 
expressing  their  adhesion  to  its  terms.  Then  began  the  detached 
method  of  construction  already  referred  to.  Naturally,  the  Conserva- 
tive Opposition  had  endeavoured  to  make  capital  out  of  the  slowness 
of  operations.  On  March  13th,  Dr.  Tupper  moved  a  long  Resolution 
embodying  the  since  generally  accepted  view  of  Canada's  responsi- 
bility in  the  matter  and  urging  the  Government  "to  employ  the 
available  funds  of  the  Dominion  "  for  the  completion  of  the  roaa 
This  was  defeated  on  a  party  division.  In  the  succeeding  year,  or> 
March  28th,  Mr.  Amor  de  Cosmos  of  British  Columbia  moved  a 
lengthy  Resolution  of  censure  upon  the  Government  for  its  slowness 
in  carrying  out  the  pledges  of  the  Dominion  to  his  Province.  It  only 
received  seven  votes.  A  motion  by  Mr.  G.  W.  Ross,  afterwards 
Prime  Minister  of  Ontario,  declaring  that  the  expenditure  should 
only  be  such  as  "  the  resources  of  the  country  will  permit  without 
increasing  the  existing  rates  of  taxation  "  was  carried  and  an  amend- 
ment proposed  on  behalf  of  the  Opposition  by  Mr.  J.  Burr  Plumb, 
and  stating  that  the  country  was  pledged  to  the  undertaking,  that  the 


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Construction  of  the  Canadian  pacific  railway         437 

surveys  should  be  energetically  pressed  and  the  construction  of  the 
road  prosecuted  with  rapidity,  was  voted  down.  On  April  21,  1877, 
Dr.  Tupper  presented  a  motion  of  censure  upon  the  Government 
for  their  general  railway  policy.      It  was  negatived  by  a  party  vote. 

During  the  succeeding  year  the  Conservative  party  came  into 
power  and  on  May  10,  1879,  ^^  "^w  Minister  of  Railways  and 
Canals — Sir  Charles  Tupper — moved  a  lengthy  Resolution  detailing 
the  engagement  of  Canada  to  build  the  Canadian  Pacific  Line  ;  its 
importance  as  "a  great  Imperial  highway  across  the  continent  of 
America  entirely  on  British  soil  ;  "  its  desirability  as  providing  a  route 
for  trade  and  commerce  to  China,  Japan  and  the  far  East ;  and  set- 
ting forth  an  elaborate  plan  for  construction  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Government  and  by  means,  chiefly,  of  a  grant  of  100,000,000  acres  of 
North-West  lands.  Mr.  Mackenzie  promptly  moved  an  amendment 
re-capitulating  Liberal  policy  and  denouncing  any  further  increase  in 
taxation.  The  original  motion,  of  course,  carried.  During  the  ensu- 
ing Session  of  1880  Mr.  Edward  Blake  proposed  a  much  more  drastic 
Resolution  against  the  Government's  railway  policy  and  asked  the 
House,  without  success,  to  declare  that  "  the  public  interests  require 
that  the  work  of  constructing  the  Pacific  Railway  in  British  Columbia 
be  postponed." 

Meanwhile,  however,  the  Canadian  Pacific  Syndicate  was  formed 
as  already  described  and,  after  prolonged  negotiation  arrangements 
were  entered  into  with  the  Government.  In  accordance  with  this 
agreement  Sir  Charles  Tupper  moved  in  the  House,  on  December 
13,  1880,  that  it  was  expedient  to  grant  25,000,000  acres  of  land 
and  a  subsidy  of  $25,000,000  cash,  for  the  construction  of  the  road. 
Prolonged  debates  followed  in  which  Messrs.  Blake,  Cartwright 
and  Mills  were  pitted  against  Sir  Charles  with  results  which  did 
not  reflect  discredit  upon  the  forceful  Minister  of  Railways.  Many 
amendments  were  proposed  and  rejected — notably  one  by  Sir  Richard 


438  CONSI RUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 

Cartwright  declaring  that  the  whole  contract  was  objectionable  and 
the  consideration  excessive.  These  amendments  were  almost  innu- 
merable and  were  proposed,  among  others,  by  Messrs.  Laurier,  Mills, 
Anglin,  F.  W.  Borden,  Paterson,  Charlton,  Rinfret,  G.  W.  Ross,  M.  C. 
Cameron,  P.  B.  Casgrain,  and  George  E.  Casey.  All  were  antago- 
nistic and  all  were  defeated  on  strict  party  lines.  The  discussions 
were  exceedingly  keen  and,  at  times,  fierce. 

By  the  terms  of  the  contract,  as  finally  passed  in  the  Session  of 
1881,  the  Syndicate  undertook  to  form  a  Company  and  build  the  road 
to  the  Pacific  within  ten  years  and  afterwards  to  operate  it,  for  the 
consideration  in  lands  and  money  as  above.  They  were,  of  course,  to 
have  the  right  of  way  through  public  lands  and  the  necessary  ground 
for  stations,  docks,  etc.  Steel  rails,  telegraph  wire  and  other  articles 
for  use  were  to  be  duty  free  and  the  sections  of  railway  already  built 
— from  Lake  Superior  to  Winnipeg,  from  Emerson  to  St,  Boniface 
and  from  Burrard's  Inlet  to  Savona's  Ferry — were  to  be  handed  over 
by  the  Government  to  the  Company.  All  the  Company's  property 
connected  with  the  road  and  its  capital  stock  were  to  be  free  of  taxa- 
tion. The  Government  also  undertook  that  no  line  south  of  the 
railway  should  be  chartered  by  the  Dominion,  or  by  any  Province 
created  by  it,  except  in  a  southerly  direction.  This  last  provision 
afterwards  became  famous  as  the  "  monopoly  clause  "  and  the  cause 
of  much  excited  controversy. 

FINANCIAL    HISTORY    OF    THE    RAILWAY 

The  work  before  the  new  Company  was  no  easy  undertaking. 
The  difficulties  of  construction  were  enormous  ;  the  engineering  skill 
needed  to  overcome  them  now  seems  to  have  been  little  short  of  the 
marvellous ;  the  costliness  of  many  portions  of  the  line  was  as  great 
as  the  obstacles  of  nature  were  threatening.  It  required  gigantic 
faith  to  enter  upon  the  plan  of  construction ;  immense  energy  and 
financial  skill  to  carry  it  through.    Nor  were  conditions  very  favourable 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 


439 


to  the  large  monetary  operations  which  were  necessary.  The  initial 
capital  of  the  Company  was  $5,000,000,  issued  at  par,  and  this  was 
increased  in  1882  to  $25,000,000 — the  new  stock  being  allotted  to 
existing  shareholders  at  25  per  cent,  of  par.  A  little  later  it  was 
increased  to  $100,000,000  and  $40,000,000  of  this  was  sold  at  an  aver- 
age of  52  per  cent,,  while  the  balance  was  deposited  with  the  Domin- 
ion Government.  In  1885,  $35,000,000  of  this  latter  amount  was 
cancelled.  The  Company  also  issued  $25,000,000  of  first-mortgage 
5  per  cent.^  50  year  land-grant  bonds,  of  which  the  greater  part  was 
afterwards  redeemed. 

This  summary  of  financial  operations  gives  no  idea,  however,  of 
the  struggles  and  vicissitudes,  the  sacrifices  and  possible  ruin,  which 
were  faced  by  the  men  in  control  of  the  Company  and  the  project  dur- 
ing these  years.  In  London,  where  most  of  the  money  had  to  be 
obtained,  a  lukewarm  feeling  existed  toward  the  enterprise.  Moneyed 
men  were  influenced  by  the  natural  hostility  of  the  Grand  Trunk 
Railway  toward  this  new  and  formidable  competitor  ;  by  the  tremend- 
ous difficulties  which  nature  had  placed  in  its  path  ;  and  by  the  double 
fact  of  so  many  millions  of  English  capital  having  been  already 
thrown  away  in  the  Grand  Trunk  and  of  more  millions  being  menaced 
by  the  success  of  any  new  rival.  It  was,  of  course,  fully  expected 
and  understood  that  the  railway  could  not  remain  a  western  one,  but 
would  seek  eastern  connections  and  make  itself,  in  time,  a  truly  conti- 
nental line.  "To  write  the  history  of  the  battle,"  says  one  writer,* 
"which  the  Directors  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  had  to  fight  in 
England  at  the  outset  would  require  several  volumes." 

Distrust  and  fear  and  political  enmity  in  Canada  also  exercised 
a  powerful  indirect  effect  upon  the  credit  of  the  Company  abroad. 
The  Opposition  in  Parliament  denounced  both  policy  and  project  over 
and    over  again    and  with    ever-increasing  energy.     A    part  of   the 

*  Alexander  Begg,  of  Winnipeg,  in  his  History  of  Manitoba. 


440  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAV 

Canadian  press  followed  suit  and  the  platforms  of  the  country  in  the 
elections  of  1882  rang  the  changes  of  a  most  persistent  pessimism 
regarding  the  whole  enterprise.  Coupled  with  the  already  instinctive 
hostility  of  vested  interests  this  sort  of  thing  had  a  natural  effect  in 
the  money  market  and  upon  the  resources  of  the  Company.  They 
went  on  vigorously  and  rapidly,  however,  with  the  construction  and  in 
the  autumn  of  1881  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  William  C.  Van  Home 
became  General  Manager.  In  1883,  the  Directorate  was  composed  of 
Messrs.  George  Stephen,  R.  B.  Angus,  W.  C.  Van  Home  a^nd  Donald 
A.  Smith,  representative  of  Canadian  interests,  and  Messrs.  John 
Turnbull,  H.  Stafford  Northcote  (now  Lord  Northcote)  C.  D.  Rose, 
Baron  J.  de  Reinach,  R.  V.  Martinson  and  W.  L.  Scott,  representa- 
tive of  English  or  foreign  interests. 

During  this  year  and  the  early  part  of  1884  a  crisis  in  the  affairs 
of  the  Company  developed.  Their  money  grant  from  the  Dominion 
had  been  expended,  the  proceeds  of  stock  sales  had  gone  into  con- 
struction, the  private  resources  of  some  of  the  Canadians  concerned 
— notably  George  Stephen  and  Donald  A.  Smith — had  been  pledged, 
the  Bank  of  Montreal  itself  had  become  deeply  concerned.  More 
money  was  absolutely  necessary  and  more  money  seemed  impossible,^ 
to  obtain.  The  influence  of  rivals  and  the  prolonged  teachings  of 
political  pessimism  were  having  their  inevitable  innings.  Much  of 
the  railway  was  built  and  money  should  have  been  comparatively 
easy  to  raise  at  this  stage  of  construction  ;  but  such  was  not  the  case. 
London,  under  the  various  influences  described,  would  not  invest, 
and  the  success  of  the  whole  enterprise,  the  financial  credit  of  Canada, 
the  future  prosperity  of  the  Dominion,  hung  in  the  balance. 

The  Company  approached  the  Government  for  a  loan  of  $22,- 
500,000  and  the  Government  hesitated.  They  naturally  feared  the 
fresh  responsibility  ;  they  knew  that  public  opinion  had  been  greatly 
worked  up  against  further  financial  connection  with  the   Company; 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY  441 

they  were  doubtful  of  their  own  supporters  in  the  House.  What 
followed  is  one  of  those  secrets  of  later  Canadian  history  not  yet 
known  to  the  public  and  only  known  in  full  to  a  very  few.  Opinion 
in  the  Cabinet  was  divided  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  persistent 
efforts  of  Sir  Frank  Smith,  backed  up  by  the  ever-cheerful  optimism 
of  Sir  John  Macdonald  and  the  sturdy  determination  of  Sir  Charles 
Tupper,  it  is  hard  to  say  what  the  result  might  have  been.  Eventu- 
ally a  re-arrangement  was  made.  The  loan  was  granted — and  repaid 
within  two  years — upon  the  transfer  to  the  Government  of  the  land- 
grants  and  of  certain  branch  lines  which  had  been  built  or  purchased 
by  the  Company  in  Ontario,  Quebec  and  Manitoba.  The  Company 
stripped  themselves  of  everything  in  order  to  proceed  with  and  com- 
plete the  work  and  in  doing  so  saved  the  railway  from  collapse,  them- 
selves from  ruin  and  the  country  from  a  set-back  which  would  have 
retarded  its  prosperity  and  growth  by  quarter  of  a  century. 

The  agreement  passed  through  Parliament,  after  bitter  opposi- 
tion, and  its  passage  marked  the  beginning  of  the  end.  The  conti- 
nental railway  was  very  soon  a  fact  and,  on  June  28,  1886,  a  through 
passenger  service  between  Montreal  and  Vancouver  was  inaugurated. 
Meanwhile,  a  steamship  line  had  been  established  on  Lakes  Huron 
and  Superior,  a  telegraph  service  completed  along  the  line  of  railway 
and  immense  elevators  for  the  storage  of  grain  built  at  Port  Arthur, 
Fort  William  and  Montreal. 

THE    GREATNESS   OF    THE    UNDERTAKING 

The  difficulties  offered  by  nature  to  the  actual  construction  of 
this  trans-continental  line  were  tremendous ;  the  scenery  along  the 
route  infinitely  grand  and  varied.  The  railway  had  been  carried 
around,  or  through,  the  massive  cliffs  of  red  granite  which  nature  has 
thrown  into  innumerable  shapes  and  marvellous  conformations  along 
the  northern  shores  of  Lake  Superior.  Rugged  and  seamed  with 
trees,  or  smooth  and  bare  in  straight  up   and   down   masses  of  rock, 

24 


442  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 

these  great  walls  now  guarded  one  side  of  the  thin  line  of  rail  which 
stamped  the  course  of  civilized  progress  through  these  vast  wilds  of 
rock  and  forest  and  water.  Tunnels  and  immense  trestle-bridges, 
prolonged  blasting  operations  and  the  scientific  precision  of  engineer- 
ing skill,  had  opened  up  in  this  case  a  country  of  the  greatest  mineral 
resources.  On  through  the  forests  and  uplands  and  myriad  lakes  and 
rivers  of  the  region  between  Port  Arthur  and  Winnipeg,  over  the 
thousand  miles  of  prairie  to  the  foot  of  the  Rockies,  the  road  had  been 
run.  Then,  for  days  of  rapid  travel,  it  had  worked  its  way  amid  the 
cloud-crowned,  snow-capped  peaks  of  the  greatest  of  the  world's 
mountain  ranges.* 

Green,  grey,  solemn  and  massive,  these  vast  phenomena  of  nature 
now  looked  down  upon,  or  were  penetrated  by,  that  little  line  of  rail 
which  marked  the  conquest  of  the  inanimate  by  the  animate.  Down 
the  deepest  of  grades  and  up  the  sides  of  the  most  forbidding  of  lofty 
mountains,  with  their  crests  encircled  by  everlasting  storms  and  cap- 
ped with  eternal  snows,  the  railway  wound  its  path  through  tunnels 
and  over  trestle-bridges  ;  along  the  banks  of  rushing  rivers  and 
wildly  struggling  mountain  torrents  ;  through  the  vast  valley  of  the 
Kicking  Horse  and  over  huge  canyons  and  chasms ;  through  the 
marvellous  scenery  of  Roger's  Pass  and  down  the  sides  of  the  roaring 
Fraser.  Neither  Canada  nor  its  great  railway  can,  indeed,  be  under-" 
stood  or  appreciated — in  either  grandeur  of  scenery  or  difficulty  of 
construction — until  these  mountains  of  British  Columbia  are  pictured 
before  the  eye  of  the  mind. 

Lines  of  mountain  peaks  rise  out  of  great  valleys,  in  which  a 
large  river  at  times  looks  to  the  traveller  in  the  train  like  a  silver 
thread,  and  tower  up  into  the  clouds.  Here  and  there  huge  glaciers 
are  visible  and  the  alternations  of  view  afforded  by  the  lofty  summits 

*  Crossing  these  ranges  in  1891  the  writer  met  Sir   Edwin   Arnold,  the  author  of  The  Light  of  Asia,  who  told  him 
that,  in  his  opinion,  they  exceeded  in  grandeur  the  Himalayas,  the  Alps,  or  the  Andes —alt  of  which  he  had  seen. 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY  443 

and  sides  of  the  principal  peaks,  such  as  those  of  the  Hermit,  or 
Mount  Stephen,  or  Mount  Macdonald,  are  simply  superb.  Sunset, 
sunrise  or  a  snow-storm  produce  the  most  beautiful  effects  in  colour- 
ing at  the  hands  of  nature — the  greatest  master  of  all  art.  Green 
and  brown,  purple  and  black,  blue  and  white,  are  developed  accord- 
ing to  the  weather  and  the  time  of  day  and  sometimes  all  at  once. 
Intensely  dark  and  sombre  and  gloomy  is  the  scene,  or  beautiful  in 
the  most  varied,  fantastic  and  splendid  forms.  The  transformations 
are  never-ending.  Here,  perhaps,  wil-1  be  visible  upon  a  dark  moun- 
tain side  lines  of  low  trees,  or  shrubs,  scattered  amidst  the  forests  of 
pine  and  looking  like  rivers  of  grass  ;  there  silvery  streaks  of  snow. 
Here,  a  huge  glacier  of  eternal  ice ;  there  something  looking  like  a 
vast  pile  of  coral  heaped  in  gigantic  shapes  by  some  demoniac  or  fan- 
tastic god  of  ancient  mythology.  Everywhere  are  the  banks  of  rush- 
ing rivers — the  Bow,  the  Kicking-Horse,  the  Columbia,  the  Bea- 
ver, the  Illicillivvaet,  the  Eagle,  the  Thompson,  or  the  magnificent 
Eraser. 

Running  down  the  mountain  sides,  skipping  in  merry  cascades 
and  myriad  colours  across  or  beside  the  railway,  tearing  wildly  down 
steep  inclines,  rushing  over  huge  rocks  or  precipices,  roaring  between 
massive  stone-walls — turbulent  or  peaceful,  grand  or  beautiful — these 
rivers  and  streams  present  a  thousand  varied  charms.  The  scenery 
along  the  Eraser  is  simply  matchless.  In  many  places  the  great  river 
is  forced  between  cliffs,  or  vertical  walls  of  rock  and  foams  and  roars 
like  some  imprisoned  giant  of  nature  fighting  to  be  free.  The  rail- 
way is  often  cut  into  the  cliffs  hundreds  of  feet  above  and  tunnels 
pierced  through  solid  rock  follow  each  other  in  rapid  succession. 
After  passing  Yale  the  mountains  moderate  in  size  and  grandeur,  the 
Rockies  and  the  Selkirks  gradually  become  things  of  the  past — linger- 
ing forever  in  the  memories  of  the  traveller — and  the  beautiful 
valleys  and  villages  and  fruit-farms  of  the  coast  region  come  into  view. 


444  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAIL  WA  Y 

Such  are  some  of  the  scenes  and  obstacles  which  marked  the 
labours  of  construction  and  stamped  the  event  with  elements  of 
greatness  which  led  the  London  Times  to  delare  *  that  the  concep- 
tion of  this  trans-continental  line  was  "  a  magnificent  act  of  faith  on 
the  part  of  the  Canadian  Dominion  "  and  that  the  small  population 
of  the  country  spread,  as  it  was,  over  so  vast  a  territory,  had  "  con- 
ceived and  executed  within  a  few  years  a  work  which  a  generation 
ago  might  well  have  appalled  the  wealthiest  and  most  powerful  of 
nations."  With  the  completion  of  the  railway,  four  years  before  the 
original  contract  had  called  for  it,  there  ended  the  prolonged  political 
fiorht  over  its  construction.  In  the  words  of  Mr.  Blake  at  Vancouver 
on  April  30,  1891  :  "When  the  railway  was  built  and  finished  I  felt, 
myself,  that  it  was  useless  to  continue  the  controversy  longer  in  defer- 
ence to  the  whole  country  which  Canada  had  risked  so  much  to 
retain." 

LATER    POLICY    OF    THE    COMPANY 

Much  more  remained  to  be  done,  however,  before  the  through 
line  which  had  required  so  much  of  persistence,  pluck  and  financial 
and  engineering  skill  to  construct,  could  be  a  dividend-paying  concern. 
One  of  the  first  steps  was  to  gradually  acquire  a  number  of  smaller 
lines  for  the  purpose  of  feeding  the  main  railway  or  facilitating  its 
trans-continental  business.  The  Canada  Central,  the  North  Shore 
Line,  the  New  Brunswick  Railway  system,  the  Montreal  and  Ottawa, 
the  Atlantic  and  North-West,  the  Credit  Valley,  the  Toronto,  Grey 
and  Bruce,  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Ottawa,  the  Sudbury  and  Sault  Ste 
Marie,  the  Manitoba  and  South-Western,  the  Calgary  and  Edmon- 
ton, the  Minneapolis  and  St.  Paul,  and  a  score  of  others  were  amal- 
gamated or  acquired  in  various  ways  until  the  total  mileage  had 
become  over  7,000.      Larger  and  better  grain   elevators  were  built  ; 

the  sleepers  on  the  entire  line  were  made  or  owned  by  the  Company 

1 

*  Kditorial,  June  30,  1886. 


SIR  J.  WILLIAM  DAWSON,  C.B.,  F.R.S.  PRINCIPAL  GEORGE  M.  GRANT,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


LOUIS  H.  FRECHETTE,  C.M.G.,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.  NICHOLAS   FLOOD  DAVIN,  Q.C.,  M.P. 


CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY  447 

itself ;  splendid  hotels  were  erected  at  Vancouver,  Banff,  Montreal, 
Quebec  and  other  places ;  handsome  Clyde-built  steamers  were  put 
on  the  Great  Lakes ;  the  Empress  Line  of  steamers  was  placed 
on  the  Pacific  and  run  from  Vancouver  to  Hong-Kong ;  another 
and  similar  Line  was  established  between  Vancouver  and  Australian 
ports. 

All  this  was  accomplished  within  a  few  years,  though  not  without 
further  difficulties  of  a  political  and  financial  nature.  The  latter  were 
now  easily  overcome  ;  the  former  included  the  prolonged  struggle  in 
Manitoba  for  the  freedom  of  that  Province  from  the  so-called  monop- 
oly clause  in  the  original  contract.  From  1880  to  1887  the  agita- 
tion, in  this  connection,  was  continuous  and  the  demand  of  Manitoba 
to  be  allowed  to  build  its  own  railways  as  it  liked  was  as  energetic  as  the 
free  air  of  the  Western  prairies  could  make  it.  The  original  protests 
against  the  clause  had  been  forcible  and  the  claim  that  the  subsequent 
Dominion  policy  of  disallowing  any  local  railway  charters  which  con- 
flicted with  it  was  crippling  Provincial  development  and  compelling 
the  endurance  of  excessive  rates,  contained  a  sufficient  element  of 
fact  to  lend  popularity  to  the  continued  protests.  At  the  same  time, 
the  Dominion  Government  was  bound  by  their  arrangement  and  it  had 
not  really  been  an  unfair  one  in  the  beginning. 

The  Company  had  a  right  in  view  of  their  difficulties,  the  Govern- 
ment a  right  in  view  of  their  responsibilities,  to  prevent  injurious  com- 
petition to  the  new  railway  for  a  given  period.  But  young  communi- 
ties are  like  young  men — sometimes  hot-headed  and  not  always 
appreciative  of  past  obligations  and  benefits.  Hence  the  controversy 
reached  an  acute  stage,  in  1887,  over  the  Dominion  disallowance  of 
the  Red  River  Valley  charter ;  and  the  Provincial  and  Federal  offi- 
cials almost  came  to  blows  at  the  scene  of  construction.  Finally,- 
Mr.  John  Norquay,  the  Premier,  accompanied  by  Mr.  Joseph  Martin, 
went  to   Ottawa   and   an    arrangement  was  come  to  by  which  the 


448  CONSTRUCTION  OF  THE  CANADIAN  PACIFIC  RAILWAY 

"  monopoly  clauses "  were  waived  by  the  Company  in  return  for  a 
fifty-year  Dominion  guarantee  of  interest  on  a  $15,000,000  issue  of 
3^  per  cent,  bonds  secured  upon  the  Company's  unsold  lands — about 
15,000,000  acres. 

Meanwhile,  the  men  who  made  the  railway  had  become  million- 
aires, as  they  deserved  to  be.  Their  energy  had  been  herculean  ; 
their  enterprise  as  creditable  as  their  financial  ability  had  been  keen. 
They  had  risked  everything,  in  reputation  and  personal  resource, 
upon  what  had  been  declared  to  be  a  natural,  geographical  and  finan- 
cial hnpossibility  and  they  merited  high  rewards.  Success  meant, 
also,  the  knitting  together  of  the  Dominion,  the  development  of 
external  trade,  the  peopling  of  the  North-West,  the  growth  of  villa- 
ges into  towns  and  towns  into  cities,  the  formino-  of  a  new  bond  of 
Imperial  unity.  Mr.  Stephen  was  created  a  Baronet  of  the  United 
Kingdom  by  the  Queen  in  1888,  and  became  Lord  Mount  Stephen  in 
1891.  Mr.  Donald  A.  Smith  was  created  a  K.  C.  M.  G.  in  1886,  a 
G.  C.  M.  G.  in  1896  and  a  Peer  of  the  realm  in  the  succeeding  year 
as  Lord  Strathcona  and  Mount  Royal.  Mr.  Van  Home  became 
President  of  the  Railway  in  1888  and  a  K.  C.  M.  G.  was  very  justly 
conferred  upon  him  six  years  afterwards.  Sir  Charles  Tupper  who, 
in  Parliament  and  out  of  it,  had  battled  so  vigorously  and  well  for  the 
great  enterprise,  became  not  only  stronger  in  reputation  through  his 
exertions  and  successful  advocacy  but  was  decorated  with  the  G.  C. 
M.  G.  in  1886  and  created  a  Baronet  two  years  later.  Thus,  out  of 
strenuous  conflict,  political  confusion  and  financial  crisis  the  railway 
had  been  created  and  developed  until  it  had  become  a  power  for  good 
in  many  things  ;  a  power,  also,  for  the  advancement  at  times  of  selfish 
ends;  a  factor  always,  in  Canadian  progress  and  Imperial  strength, 
which  all  the  world  has  been  compelled  to  recognize. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

The  North-west  and  the  Rebellion  of  1885 

IT  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  note  how  often  in  history  good 
appears  to  come  out  of  evil.  Nowhere  is  this  result  more  fre- 
quently seen  than  in  the  ultimate  consequences  of  war — whether 
the  struggle  be  great  or  small.  Certainly,  little  but  evil  could  be 
seen  in  the  year  1885  in  an  uprising  of  the  Half-breeds  and  Indians 
upon  the  vast  prairies  of  the  North-West,  and  with  all  the  possibilities 
of  pillage  and  massacre  which  such  a  situation  presented.  Yet  out  of 
the  event  came  an  exhibition  of  united  sentiment  amongst  the  people  of 
Canada's  scattered  Provinces  which  had  not  been  conceived  of ;  while  the 
spectacle  of  volunteers,  from  Halifax  to  the  far  West,  fighting  side  by 
side  on  behalf  of  the  Dominion,  crystalized  what  might  have  been  a 
passing  enthusiasm  into  a  permanent  and  growing  Canadianism. 

CAUSES    OF    THE    INSURRECTION 

The  causes  of  the  trouble  were  nominally  numerous  ;  the  real 
cause  was  the  dominance  of  one  restless,  unscrupulous,  flighty  charac- 
ter amongst  a  restless  race  of  irresponsible  and  ignorant  men.  After 
the  stirring  times  at  Fort  Garry,  in  1870,  Louis  Riel  had  not  found 
his  enforced  residence  in  the  Western  States  very  pleasant,  and  had 
drifted  back,  been  elected  to  a  seat  in  Parliament  from  a  Half-breed 
constituency,  and,  after  expulsion  from  the  House,  had  once  more 
been  compelled  to  disappear  from  public  view.  But  he  kept  up 
his  connection  with  the  Half-breeds  and  maintained  his  reputation  as 
a  sort  of  hero  and  leader  amongst  the  hunters  of  the  plain  as  he 
had  once  done  amongst  the  peasantry  around  Fort  Garry,  now  the 
Winnipeg  of  a  new  era. 

•  449 


450  THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 

In  1884,  after  the  completion  of  his  period  of  banishment,  he  reap- 
peared for  a  time,  and  seemed  wiUing  to  live  quietly  and  peaceably. 
The  suspicions  of  the  authorities  at  Ottawa  were,  in  fact,  lulled  very 
largely  to  rest,  although  they  were  actually  engaged  in  some  measure  of 
controversy  with  the  Half-breed  population.  There  were  several 
reasons  for  discontent  on  the  part  of  the  latter  and  the  principal  one  was 
probably  the  advance  of  the  white  man's  civilization  into  wide  regions 
hitherto  sacred  to  the  gun  of  the  adventurous  sportsman,  the  wiles  of 
the  trader  and  trapper,  and  the  wild,  free  open  life  of  the  Half-breed 
hunter.  The  whistle  of  the  locomotive  was  being  heard  in  the  land, 
and  the  buffalo,  as  a  result  of  utterly  reckless  shooting  and  killing, 
was  disappearing  from  the  region  in  which  he  had  become  the  verita- 
ble staff  of  life  to  both  Indian  and  Half-breed. 

DISAPPOINTED    WHITE    SETTLERS 

Moreover,  there  were  disappointed  white  settlers  scattered  over 
the  country  to  the  far  north  where  it  had  at  first  been  expected  the 
Canadian  Pacific  would  be  built  and  their  fortunes  easily  made, 
while  there  was  some  degree  of  anger  among  the  Half-breeds, 
or  Metis,  of  the  Territories  owing  to  certain  land  regulations  of  the 
Dominion  Government.  They  desired  to  be  placed  in  the  same  posi- 
tion as  the  Manitoba  Half-breeds  who  were  each  entitled  to  240  acres 
and  a  patent  of  ownership.  They  opposed  the  Government  method  of 
surveying  and  granting  lands  and  claimed  the  right  to  follow  the  im- 
memorial custom  of  the  French  habitants  and  to  locate  their  settle- 
ments upon  the  river  banks  in  farms  of  long,  thin  strips  of  soil 
stretching  away  from  the  river  frontage. 

In  September,  1884,  a  meeting  of  Metis,  was  held  at  St.  Laurent 
(a  settlment  on  the  Saskatchewan)  and  a  Bill  of  Rights,  or  petition 
of  grievances,  was  prepared  which  asked  for  the  subdivision  of  the 
North-West  Territories  into  Provinces  and  equality  of  personal  treat- 
ment with  the  Manitoba  Metis  ;  for  patents  to  be  granted  settlers  in 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885  451 

actual  possession  of  land  ;  for  the  sale  of  500,000  acres  of  Dominion 
lands  and  the  expending  of  the  proceeds  upon  Half-breed  schools, 
hospitals  and  similar  institutions,  and  upon  seed-grain  and  imple- 
ments for  the  poorer  persons  in  their  settlements  ;  for  the  reservation 
of  a  hundred  townships  of  swamp  lands  for  distribution  amongst  Half- 
breed  children  during  the  next  1 20  years  ;  for  the  maintenance  of 
local  institutions  ;  and  for  the  making  of  better  provision  for  their 
Indian  friends,  neighbours  and  relations. 

The  Government,  meantime,  had  appointed  a  Commission  to 
investig^ate  the  Half-breed  claims  and  this  action  seems  to  show  that 
whatever  there  had  been  of  slowness  in  taking  up  the  subject  there 
was  no  serious  indifference  to  the  needs  of  this  great  part  of  the 
North-West  population  and  that  a  little  patience  would  have  brought 
matters  out  all  right.  It  was  also  stated  by  the  Dominion  authori- 
ties, in  reference  to  the  two  chief  grievances  complained  of,  that  it 
was  actually  in  the  power  of  any  Half-breed  properly  entitled  to  it  to 
obtain  a  patent  for  his  farm  by  the  ordinary  legal  process  and  that  the 
claims  put  forward  for  a  settlement  similar  to  the  Manitoba  one  were 
made  by  the  very  men  who  had  been  already  settled  with  in  1870. 
However,  Riel  wanted  a  rising  and  any  peg  in  the  way  of  complaints 
was  sufficient  to  hang  his  purpose  on.  It  is  stated  that  he  had  the 
advice  and  moral  assistance — though  not  the  armed  help — of  sundry 
characters  who  were  neither  Half-breeds  nor  Indians  and  who,  no 
doubt,  aided  in  that  process  of  self-deception  in  which  he  had  already 
proven  himself  an  adept.  Disappointed  white  contractors,  disap- 
pointed white  land-sharks,  disappointed  white  farmers,  in  a  few  cases, 
had  something  to  do  with  the  trouble.  They  had  nothing  to  lose  in 
the  disturbances  which  were  sure  to  follow  and  which  men  of  a  pessi- 
mistic turn  of  mind  had  prophesied  long  before  the  event. 

On    March  22,    1885,  the  Government   received  word  that  the 
almost  inaudible  mutterings  of  suppressed  sedition  had  broken  into 


452  THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 

actual  violence  and  that  Riel,  with  forty  men,  had  seized  the  mail- 
bags  and  courier's  horses  at  a  place  called  Duck  Lake.  This  point 
was  not  far  from  Prince  Albert  and  Fort  Carlton,  where  there  were 
small  posts  of  North-West  Mounted  Police,  and  was  in  the  region 
about  half-way  between  two  large  Indian  reserves — with  several  Half- 
breed  villages  not  far  off.  It  was  some  300  miles  from  the  line  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific.  The  moment  was  an  anxious  one.  Scattered 
on  isolated  farms,  or  ranches,  or  in  tiny  settlements  throughout  the 
vast  extent  of  the  Territories  were  many  white  people.  Around  them 
and  amongst  them  were  not  only  wandering  Half-breed  hunters  and 
occasional  Metis  villag-es,  but  thousands  of  Indian  tribes.  If  the  latter 
rose  in  arms  the  slaughter  and  suffering  of  the  white  population  would 
be  very  great.  The  500  Mounted  Police,  located  in  small  detachments 
at  points  distant  from  one  another,  would  have  been  of  little  use  in 
saving  lives  under  any  general  rising. 

MEASURES    TAKEN    TO    SUPPRESS    THE    REBELLION 

The  Government's  action  was  prompt.     The  day  after  the  news 
had  reached  them  of  Kiel's  initial  step  the  Commander  of  the  Militia 
was   travelling   to   Winnipeg  after  a   long   interview  with  Mr.  A.  P. 
Caron,  the  Minister  of  Militia  and  Defence  ;  and  in  a  few  days  3,300 
officers  and   men  had  been  called  out  for  active   service  and  were  on 
their  way   to  the    North- West.     With  some    1,600  officers  and  men 
who  turned  out  from  Manitoba  and  the  Territories,  and  including  the 
Mounted  Police,  the  total  force  under  General  Middleton,  therefore, 
presently    amounted    to  over   5,400  men.*     Many    more    thousands 
wanted  to  go  and  the  news  which  soon   came  that,  on  March    28th, 
Major    Crozier,    with  100    men  of  the    Mounted  Police    and    Prince 
Albert  Volunteers,  had  come  into  collision  with   Riel  at  Duck  Lake 
and  been  compelled   to  retire,  leaving  his  dead   on  the  field,  fairly 
electrified  the  Dominion  with  indignation. 

*  The  official  figures  are  5,450. 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 


453 


The  best  regiments  of  the  militia  and  the  most  of  the  small  regu- 
lar, or  permanent,  force  of  Canada  were,  meanwhile,  being  sent  to  the 
front.  The  Canadian  Permanent  Artillery  with  its  Quebec  and 
Kingston  Batteries ;  the  Queen's  Own  and  Royal  Grenadiers  of 
Toronto  under  command  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  W.  D.  Otter ;  the 
Midland  Battalion,  a  splendid  mixed  regiment  under  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  A.  T.  H.  Williams,  M.  P.;  the  York  and  Simcoe  Battalion 
under  Lieutenant-Colonel  W.  E.  O'Brien,  M.  P.;  the  Governor-Gen- 
eral's Body  Guard  of  Toronto  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  G.  T.  Deni- 
son  ;  the  65th  and  9th  Battalions  of  Montreal  (French-Canadian) 
under  Lieutenant-Colonels  Ouimet  and  Amyot  respectively ;  the 
Halifax  Provisional  Battalion  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Bremner;  the 
Montreal  Garrison  Artillery  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  W.  R.  Oswald; 
the  Infantry  School  Corps  of  Toronto,  the  Governor-General's  Foot 
Guards  of  Ottawa,  the  7th  Battalion  of  London,  and  the  Cavalry 
School  Corps  of  Quebec  ;  were  the  principal  regiments,  or  in  a  few 
cases,  portions  of  regiments,  which  went  with  all  haste  to  the  seat  of 
trouble. 

In  Manitoba  and  the  Territories  some  very  useful  troops  were 
accepted  for  immediate  service.  Winnipeg  contributed  a  Field  Bat- 
tery, a  Cavalry  Troop,  a  Light  Infantry  Battalion  under  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Osborne  Smith,  the  90th  Rifles  under  Lieutenant-Colonel 
McKeand  and  the  Winnipeg  Infantry  Battalion  under  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Thomas  Scott,  M.  P.  From  the  Territories  came  Boulton's 
Scouts,  a  gallant  little  mounted  body  of  a  hundred  men  under  Major 
(afterwards  Senator)  C.  A.  Boulton,  the  D.  L.  S.  Scouts  of  Qu'Ap- 
pelle,  the  Moose  Mountain  Scouts,  the  Rocky  Mountain  Rangers 
of  Calgary,  French's  Scouts  of  the  Territories,  and  the  Battleford 
Rifle  Company. 

The  troops  from  Ontario   and    Quebec   and   Nova  Scotia  had 
a  weary   and   dreary   time    in  crossing   the   great   gaps  which  still 


454  THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 

existed  in  the  Canadian  Pacific  to  the  east  of  Port  Arthur.  The 
United  States  Government  would  not  permit  an  armed  force  to  pass 
over  its  territory  by  train  so  that,  as  in  the  previous  rising  of  1870, 
much  hardship  and  even  suffering  had  to  be  endured.  Let  an  extract 
from  the  official  Report  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  C.  E.  Montizambert, 
of  the  Artillery,  picture  the  trying  troubles  of  this  period  : 

"  About  400  miles  *  *  *  had  to  be  passed  by  a  constantly  varying  process 
of  embarking  and  disembarking  guns  and  stores  from  flat  cars  to  country  team  sleighs 
and  vice  versa.  There  were  sixteen  operations  of  this  nature  in  cold  weather  and  deep 
snow.  On  starting  from  the  west  end  of  the  track  on  the  night  of  the  30th  of  March 
the  roads  were  found  so  bad  that  it  took  the  guns  seventeen  ho.urs  to  do  the  distance 
(30  miles)  to  Magpie  Camp,  On  from  there  to  the  east  end  of  the  track  by  team  . 
sleighs  and  marching  23  miles  further  on  ;  on  flat  cars,  uncovered  and  open,  with  the 
\\^QXxnovcit^iQX  dX  fifty  degrees  below  zero .  Huron  Bay,  Port  Munro,  McKellar's  Bay, 
Jackfish,  Isbistcr,  McKay's  Harbour,  were  passed  by  alternate  flat  cars  on  construction 
tracks;  and,  teaming  in  fearful  weather  round  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior, 
Nipegon  was  reached  on  the  evening  of  the  3rd  April.  The  men  had  had  no  sleep 
for  four  nights." 

Hut  these  and  other  hardships  of  the  campaign  were  borne  in  a 
surprisingly  cheerful  spirit  by  men  who,  in  many  cases,  had  never 
known  what  privation  meant  and  had  lived  in  luxurious  homes  or,  at 
the  least,  ainid  surroundings  of  considerable  comfort.  All  classes 
were  to  be  found  amongst  the  troops.  College  graduates,  delicate- 
looking  clerks,  sturdy  farmers'  sons,  men  of  independent  means  and 
position — all  actuated  with  a  common  desire  to  suppress  insurrection 
upon  Canadian  soil  and  to  protect  the  hearths  and  homes  of  Canadian 
citizens.  As  indicated  in  Colonel  Montizambert's  statement  the  time 
of  the  year  was  most  unsuited  for  active  campaigning.  Around  the 
northern  shores  of  Lake  Superior  the  cold  was  intense  and  further 
west  the  raw  chill  of  the  early  spring-time  permeated  everything,  even 
when  the  actual  cold  was  not  severe.  Transport  was  necessarily 
insufficient  in    a   force  which    had   been    called   out,    equipped  and 


BATTLE  OF   BATOCHE,  NORTHWEST   REBELLION    OF   1885 


BATTLE   OF   CUT    KNIFE    HILL,   NORTHWEST    KEUELLION  OF    1885 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885  457 

marched,  or  carried  1,000  miles  in  a  few  days.  Fortunately,  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company,  with  its  vast  resources  and  knowledge  of  the 
country,  rendered  splendid  assistance  under  the  management  of  Major 
Bedson.  the  General's  chief  transport  officer. 

No  better  commander  for  this  gallant  little  army  of  volunteers 
than  Major-General  F.  D.  Middleton  could  have  been  obtained. 
With  a  record  of  brave  service  in  Australia,  in  New  Zealand,  and  in 
India  during  the  Mutiny — when  he  was  strongly  recommended  for  a 
V.  C,  but  was  debarred  from  its  receipt  by  the  technical  fact  of  his 
having  been  on  the  General's  personal  staff — and  of  organizing  work 
at  Malta,  Gibraltar  and  Sandhurst,  he  was  above  the  desire  to  obtain 
victory  by  the  sacrifice  of  his  men,  or  to  make  a  rash  effort  at  reputa- 
tion by  too  great  haste  in  operations.  He  was  a  bluff,  kindly,  cautious 
and  gallant  officer  who  inspired  his  troops  with  confidence  and  won 
from  most  of  his  officers  a  measure  of  personal  regard.  He  shared 
fully  in  every  hardship  and  privation  of  the  men,  though  at  that  time 
so  well  advanced  in  years  as  to  make  an  arduous  campaign  a  just 
matter  for  care  and  consideration. 

THE    PLAN    OF   CAMPAIGN 

The  march  across  the  great  expanses  of  wintry  plain  and  frozen 
prairie  from  the  railway  to  the  seat  of  trouble  was,  indeed,  a  painful 
one  to  officers  and  men  alike.  Engineered  roads  there  were  none. 
Lord  Melgund  (now  Earl  of  Minto  and  Governor-General  of  Canada), 
who  was  General  Middleton's  Chief  of  Staff,  has  described  the  cold 
as  at  times  intense,  the  tent-pegs  as  being  frozen  into  the  ground, 
the  boots  of  those  who  were  riding  as  frozen  to  their  stirrup  irons, 
the  men  as  marching  twenty  miles  a  day  through  perpetual  high 
winds,  cold  rains  and  occasional  blizzards. 

The  campaign  seems  to  have  been  skillfully  planned.  The  Gen- 
eral had  to  cover  and  protect  a  vast  extent  of  country  with  a  few 
troops.     He  had  to  arrange  his  men  so  as  to  over- awe  large  reserves 


458  THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 

of  Indians  scattered  through  the  Territories  and  thus  prevent  a  gen- 
eral rising,  while  at  the  same  time  relieving  Battleford,  which  was 
threatened,  and  attacking  Riel  and  his  clever  lieutenant,  Gabriel 
Dumont,  in  their  headquarters  at  Batoche.  Distances  were  tremen- 
dous and  difficulties  of  transport  and  supply  equally  great.  He 
divided  his  force  into  three  Columns  with  the  Canadian  Pacific  Rail- 
way at,  or  near,  Ou'  Appelle,  Swift  Current  and  Calgary  as  the  gen- 
eral base.  The  Column  from  Qu'Appelle  to  Batoche  was  commanded 
by  the  General  in  person  and  was  made  up  of  "  A."  Battery,  Quebec, 
the  Winnipeg  90th  Battalion,  the  Winnipeg  Field  Battery,  the  Royal 
Grenadiers,  Boulton's  and  French's  Scouts,  pare  of  the  Midland  Bat- 
talion and  the  Intelligence  Corps — 1078  men  altogether. 

The  second  Column,  from  Swift  Current  to  Battleford,  was  under 
the  command  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  W.  D.  Otter  and  was  composed 
of  the  "  B."  Battery  of  Kingston,  the  Queen's  Own,  part  of  the  Gov- 
ernor-General's Foot  Guards,  and  other  corps  which  made  up  a  total 
of  543  men.  It  had  been  originally  intended  that  this  Column  should 
join  General  Middleton  at  Clark's  Crossing,  on  the  South  Saskatche- 
wan, and  march  with  him  on  Batoche,  but  it  was  diverted  to  Battle- 
ford on  account  of  the  alarming  reports  regarding  the  situation  in 
that  vicinity.  The  third  Column,  which  had  to  make  a  long  detour 
by  way  of  Edmonton,  before  meeting  the  other  Columns  somewhere 
on  the  North  Saskatchewan,  was  commanded  by  a  veteran  officer  who 
had  spent  many  years  in  Canada  at  military  organization  work  of 
various  kinds — Major-General  T.  Bland  Strange.  His  command  was 
made  up  chiefly  of  the  65th  Battalion  and  the  Winnipeg  Provisional 
Battalion.  With  some  Scouts  and  Mounted  Police  he  had  656  men 
altogether.  Scattered  along  the  line  of  railway  at  various  defensive 
or  strategic  points  were  portions  of  the  regiments  mentioned.  The 
Governor-General's  Body  Guard  was  at  Humboldt,  the  Halifax  men 
were  at  Moose  Jaw  and  Medicine  Hat,  the  York  and  Simcoe  Battalion 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885  459 

was  at  Fort  Qu'  Appelle,  and  other  detachments,  as  the  campaign 
progressed,  were  at  Clark's  Crossing,  Touchwood,  Calgary,  Fort 
McLeod  and  Cypress  Hills.  The  base  for  the  transport  of  supplies  was 
placed  at  Swift  Current,  with  Major-General  J.  Wimburn  Laurie,  an 
experienced  officer  and  a  member  of  the  Dominion  Parliament,  in 
charge. 

Everything  was  done  quickly  and,  indeed,  the  speed  of  operations 
seems  to  have  been  the  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  campaign  as 
it  was,  probably,  the  salvation  of  many  helpless  settlers  and  the  cause 
of  its  short  duration.  Middleton's  Column  started  on  April  6th — 
eleven  days  after  the  first  shot  had  been  fired  at  Duck  Lake,  a  dis- 
tance of  1700  miles  from  Montreal — for  a  march  of  21 1  miles  to  the 
banks  of  the  South  Saskatchewan,  where  Riel  was  now  playing  his  little 
game  of  sedition  and  death.  Otter's  Column  left  Swift  Current  on 
April  nth,  marched  203  miles  to  Battleford  at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles 
a  day  and  reached  its  destination  on  the  25th.  General  Strange  left 
Calgary  on  April  20th  and  reached  Edmonton  on  May  5th,  after  hav- 
ing marched  194  miles  in  fifteen  days.  Such  figures  convey  some 
idea  of  the  rapidity  of  movement  which  characterized  this  entire 
campaign. 

The  fate  of  the  Columns  was  somewhat  varied.  That  of  Major- 
General  Strange  had  little  trouble  to  encounter  until  it  reached  Edmon- 
ton, near  which  place  the  Indians  had  risen  under  a  chief  named  Big 
Bear  and  had  destroyed  farms  and  plundered  food  supplies  in  every 
direction.  At  a  more  distant  point,  called  Frog's  Lake,  they  had 
murdered  nine  men — including  two  priests — besides  carrying  away  a 
number  of  women  and  children  as  prisoners.  This  occurrence  had 
followed  the  incident  at  Duck  Lake  and  was  upon  the  lines  of  a  policy 
of  Half-breed  co-operation  with  the  Indians  which  Riel  had  hoped 
would  be  effectual  elsewhere.  From  Edmonton  General  Strange — 
greatly  assisted  by  some  cavalry  under   Major  S.  B.   Steele — moved 


46o  THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 

down  the  North  Saskatchewan  to  Fort  Pitt,  a  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
fort,  not  far  from  Frog's  Lake  and  200  miles  east  of  Edmonton. 
There  he  found  that  the  post  had  been  abandoned  by  Inspector 
Dickins  and  his  small  force  of  N.  W.  M.  P.  after  a  prolonged  resist- 
ance to  Big  Bear.  The  Inspector  and  most  of  his  men  succeeded  in 
escaping  to  Battleford,  after  suffering  severe  hardships.  On  May 
24th  the  General  marched  out  to  meet  the  Indian  chief  and  found 
him  at  a  place  called  Frenchman's  Butte,  which  he  also  found  it 
impossible  to  take.  A  great  morass  was  behind  the  position  occupied 
by  Big  Bear  and  a  frontal  attack  was,  in  the  General's  opinion,  out  of 
the  question.  He,  therefore,  retired  to  Fort  Pitt,  where  he  awaited 
the  early  arrival  of  General  Middleton,  after  his  expected  juncture  at 
Battleford  with  Colonel  Otter. 

CUT-KNIFE    HILL    AND    FISH    CREEK 

Meanwhile,  the  Battleford  Column  had  also  met  what  seems  to 
have  been  a  partial  reverse.  Colonel  Otter  arrived  at  Battleford 
without  serious  incident  and  found  the  place  menaced  by  a  large  band 
of  Indians  under  one  of  the  most  astute  of  North-West  chiefs — a 
man  named  Poundmaker.  Various  acts  of  depredation  had  been  com 
mitted,  some  settlers  killed  and  a  certain  amount  of  plundering  done. 
But  the  situation  does  not  appear  to  have  been  as  serious  as  had  been 
represented  to  General  Middleton,  nor  is  it  likely  that  the  astute  Cree 
would  have  done  anything  which  could  not  have  been  disavowed  until 
he  saw  which  way  the  campaign  was  likely  to  go.  Upon  Colonel 
Otter's  arrival,  however,  the  latter  found  the  inhabitants  of  Battleford 
in  a  state  of  great  alarm  and  Poundmaker  with  some  200  followers 
encamped  about  thirty-eight  miles  away.  The  Indian  chief  was  said 
to  be  wavering  between  peace  and  war,  with  a  sort  of  half-formed 
intention  to  effect  a  junction  of  his  force  and  that  of  Big  Bear. 
To  prevent  this  a  reconnaissance  of  the  Canadian  troops  was  made 
in  force  and,  at  a  place  called  Cut-Knife  Hill,  Otter  came  up  with 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885  461 

Poundmaker's  braves.  A  general  conflict  followed  which  ended  in  the 
disablement  of  the  Canadian  guns,  the  loss  of  eight  men  killed  and 
fourteen  wounded,  and  a  withdrawal  to  Battleford.  There  Colonel 
Otter  awaited  the  hoped-for  coming  of  General  Middleton. 

Everything  now  turned  upon  the  first  Column  and  its  success 
with  the  forces  under  Riel  and  Dumont.  On  April  23rd,  the  Gene- 
ral had  left  Clark's  Crossing  and  marched  his  force  in  two  divisions 
— one  on  each  side  of  the  South  Saskatchewan — toward  Batoche. 
During  the  day  it  traversed  eighteen  miles  of  country  and  on  the  next 
morning  General  Middleton's  own  part  of  the  force  came  in  contact 
with  the  enemy  a  few  miles  from  the  river  in  a  thickly  wooded  ravine 
called  Fish  Creek.  The  rebels  were  well  placed  in  deep  and  carefully 
protected  rifle-pits  and,  although  the  troops  from  the  other  side  of 
the  river  were  brought  across  and  the  whole  force  was  engaged 
during  the  greater  part  of  the  day  it  was  found  impossible  to  dislodge 
Dumont  and  his  men  without  an  actual  frontal  charge.  This,  Cap- 
tain James  Mason — afterwards  Lieutenant-Colonel  in  command  of 
the  Royal  Grenadiers — offered  to  lead  and  begged  earnestly  for  per- 
mission to  do  so.  But  the  General  showed  his  humane  disposition 
by  refusing  to  risk  the  lives  of  any  more  of  his  citizen  soldiers. 
Enough,  he  declared,  had  been  lost  already.  The  killed,  and  those 
who  died  of  wounds  received  during  the  fight,  numbered  ten  and  the 
wounded  men  over  forty.  General  Middleton  had  himself  received  a 
bullet  through  his  cap  and  many  of  the  officers  had  had  their  horses 
shot  under  them. 

The  night  which  followed  was  a  sufficiently  gloomy  one  to  vol- 
unteers unaccustomed  to  endure  repulse  with  equanimity  ;  and  with 
the  sounds  of  shot  and  shell  and  the  shouts  of  combatants  still  ringing 
in  their  ears.  The  rebels,  however,  had  lost  some  thirteen  killed  and 
eighteen  wounded  and  this  appears  to  have  been  enough  for  them  as 
they  decamped  to  Batoche  during  the  night.    General  Middleton  now 

25 


462 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 


decided  to  stay  for  some  time  at  Fish  Creek  in  order  to  complete  his 
hospital  arrangements,  await  expected  supplies,  and  receive  some 
more  men  who  were  on  the  way  under  Colonel  Williams.  These  came 
by  the  s\.^2in\^x  Northcote,  on  May  5th,  and  with  them  was  Lientenant- 
Colonel  Bowen  Van  Straubenzie,  who  had  served  in  the  British  army 
in  India,  China  and  the  Crimea  and  had  been  for  years  connected 
with  the  Canadian  militia.  The  infantry  was  at  once  formed  into  a 
brigade  with  Van  Straubenzie  as  commander  and,  two  days  later,  the 
advance  upon  Batoche  was  resumed. 

THE    BATTLE    OF    BATOCHE 

This  place  had  been  the  headquarters  of  Riel  and  his  band  of 
rebels  from  the  beginning.  Under  the  direction  of  Dumont,  who 
possessed  some  natural  instinct  for  military  operations,  it  had  been 
steadily  strengthened  by  entrenchments  and  rifle-pits  and  it  was  now 
known  that  the  resistance  would  be  desperate.  On  May  9th  this  fact 
was  experienced.  The  place  was  shelled  and  partially  surrounded 
but  at  the  end  of  a  day's  fighting  no  real  progress  had  been  made. 
The  General  sent  off  orders  to  close  up  the  lines  of  communication 
in  case  help  should  be  required  ;  despatched  Lord  Melgund  to  Ottawa 
with  important  messages  and  an  undertaking  that  should  matters 
grow  more  serious  he  could  return  from  Winnipeg ;  and  camped 
during  the  night  under  the  continued  fire  of  the  enemy.  The  suc- 
ceeding day  passed  in  an  exchange  of  shots  and  was  marked  by  a 
slight  forward  movement  on  the  part  of  the  rebels.  On  the  third  day 
a  reconnaissance  was  made  with  the  view  of  exactly  locating  the 
enemy  and  preparing  for  the  final  attack.  On  the  12th  a  forward 
movement  was  initiated,  and  developed  into  a  charge  which  burst 
through  the  rifle-pits,  carried  the  enemy's  quarters,  streamed  in 
triumph  through  the  streets  of  the  village  and  killed  47  and  wounded 
163  of  the  rebels.  Riel  surrendered  three  days  later  and  was  at  once 
sent  to  Regina  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  civil  authorities. 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885  463 

The  battle  proved  an  interesting  revelation  of  the  dash  and  spirit 
of  Canadian  volunteers  just  as  the  preceding  three  days  showed  how 
they  chafed  under  the  delay  caused  by  General  Middleton's  frequently 
expressed  desire  to  avert  the  loss  of  life  amongst  his  troops  as  far  as 
possible.  Five  were  killed,  however,  including  four  officers,  and  twen- 
ty-five wounded,  including  two  officers,  during  this  last  day's  fighting. 
The  honours  of  the  day  are  generally  accorded  to  Colonel  Williams 
of  Port  Hope.  Brave  to  the  point  of  rashness  and  impulsive  to  the 
point  of  imprudence  he  had  led  in  the  final  charge  and  won  a  lasting 
reputation  for  the  ensuing  success.  A  couple  of  months  later  he 
died  as  a  result  of  fever  and  brain  inflammation  preying  upon  a  sys- 
tem already  weakened  by  hardship  and  upon  a  nature  sensitive  in  the 
extreme  to  criticism  and  to  the  necessary  discipline  of  camps.  A  monu- 
ment at  Port  Hope  expresses  popular  appreciation  of  the  "  Hero  of 
Batoche  "  while  public  memory  has  crowned  him  with  a  laurel  of 
reputation. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  event  has  been  the  cause  of  consid- 
erable controversy  and  a  word  must  be  said  here  regarding  the  mat- 
ter. The  responsibility  for  ordering  the  charge  is  largely  the  point  in 
question  though  it  would  seem  as  if  that  were  hardly  a  matter  affect- 
ing the  credit  of  Colonel  Williams.  If  he  obeyed  orders  in  advanc- 
ing and  forged  ahead  of  the  others,  the  result  is  greatly  to  his  honour. 
If  without  orders,  or  in  anticipation  of  them,  he  led  his  men  in  a  mad 
rush  upon  the  entrenchments  of  the  rebels,  then  he  assumed  a 
responsibility  which  subordinate  officers  do  not  usually  care  to  take, 
or  in  the  regular  service,  dare  to  take.  The  consequences  of  the 
charge  might  have  been  different  and  in  that  case  the  position  of  an 
officer  so  acting  would  have  been  very  unpleasant  no  matter  how 
great  his  bravery  might  have  been.  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  T. 
Denison,  one  of  the  best  known  of  Canada's  militia  officers  and  a 
man  whose  opinion  carries  weight,  takes  the  somewhat  extraordinary 


464  IHE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 

ground  in  a  volume  which  has  attracted  much  public  interest  in  the 
last  year  of  the  century,*  that  "attempts  have  been  made  to  detract 
from  the  credit  due  to  Williams  by  trying  to  spread  the  view  that  he 
acted  under  the  orders  of  General  Middleton  and  Colonel  Van  Strau- 
benzie  in  bringing  on  the  general  action."  He  goes  on  to  say  that 
as  a  result  of  the  charge  the  campaign,  as  well  as  the  battle,  was  won. 
It  is  a  new  contention  for  obedience  to  orders  upon  the  field 
of  battle  to  be  stamped  as  discreditable.  Aside  from  that,  however, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  how  Colonel  Williams'  reputation  can  be  injuri- 
ously affected  by  any  statement  of  the  fact  that  in  leading  the  charge 
he  did  it  under  command  of  his  superiors.  If  he  was  rash  and  impul- 
sive enough  to  have  led  it  without  orders,  as  Colonel  Denison  believes 
from  the  evidence  before  him,  then  his  reputation  must  rest  upon  the 
fact  of  success  followed  by  death  having  made  it  impossible  to  criti- 
cise an  action  which,  let  it  be  repeated,  might  have  had  serious  con- 
sequences of  a  very  different  sort.  The  official  statements  concern- 
ing the  matter  are  sufficiently  explicit.  General  Middleton  in  his 
Report  of  May  31,  1885,  states  that : 

"  Two  companies  of  the  Midland,  sixty  men  in  all,  under  command  of  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel Williams,  were  extended  on  the  left  and  moved  up  to  the  cemetery  and 
the  Grenadiers,  200  strong  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Grasett,  *  *  *  prolonged  the 
line  to  the  right,  the  90th  being  in  support.  The  Midland  and  Grenadiers,  led  by 
Lieutenant-Colonels  Williams  and  Grasett,  the  whole  led  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Van 
Straubenzie,  in  command  of  the  Brigade,  then  dashed  forward  with  a  cheer  and  drove 
the  enemy  out  of  the  pits  in  front  of  the  cemetery  and  the  ravine  to  the  right  of  it. " 

The  General  then  gives  further  incidents  of  the  action  and  finally 
adds  that  Lieutenant-Colonels  Williams  and  Grasett  "came  promi- 
nently to  my  notice  from  the  gallant  way  in  which  they  led  and 
cheered  their  men  to  the  left,  rush  by  rush,  until  they  gained  the 
houses    on    the    plain — the    former    having    commenced    the    rush." 

*  Soldiering  in  Canada.    By  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  T.  Denison.    George  N.  Morang  &  Company,  Limited. 
I'g  route. 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1883  467 

There  appears  to  have  been  no  desire  on  the  part  of  the  Gen- 
eral to  detract  from  any  laurels  which  may  have  been  won  by 
Williams  on  this  occasion  and  he  distinctly  gives  him  first 
place  in  the  Report  quoted.  In  a  further  despatch  dated  December 
30th,  he  refers  to  his  death  in  most  sympathetic  terms  and  speaks  of 
it  as  having  deprived  Canada  of  one  of  her  best  men  and  himself  of 
a  warm  and  sincere  friend.  Colonel  Van  Straubenzie  under  his  own 
signature,*  has  stated  that  "  on  the  occasion  of  that  charge  on  the 
rifle-pits  of  Batoche  on  the  12th  of  May  last,  I  ordered  the  late 
lamented  Colonel  Williams,  in  most  emphatic  and  unqualified  lan- 
guage, to  advance  to  the  charge,  at  the  same  time  advancing  myself 
in  charge  of  the  attacking  party."  Lieutenant-Colonel  C.  A.  Boulton, 
who  was  an  eye-witness  of  the  fight,  in  his  volume  of  Reminiscences 
of  the  Rebellion,  also  speaks  of  Colonel  Van  Straubenzie's  orders  to 
advance  and  of  himself  seeing  the  rapid  rush  of  the  Midlanders  on  the 
left  and  the  Grenadiers  in  the  centre,  mixed  with  the  90th. 

CONCLUSION    OF    THE    CAMPAIGN 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  reasonably  clear  that  Colonel  Williams 
led  in  the  final  charge  and  was  closely  supported  by  Colonel  Grasett; 
that  both  officers  were  obeying  the  orders  of  the  Colonel  Van 
Straubenzie ;  that  the  latter,  as  Brigade  Commander,  was  following 
the  plan  of  operations  already  mapped  out  by  General  Middleton. 
The  action  itself  was  only  the  gallant  ending  of  a  carefully  arranged 
movement  leading  up  to  this  result — and  it  seems  as  difficult,  there- 
fore, to  understand  how  Colonel  Williams  with  his  sixty  or  seventy 
men  could  have  won  the  campaign  in  obeying  the  order  to  charge  at 
Batoche  as  it  does  to  see  how  the  statement  of  the  fact  that  he  was  so 
ordered  can  detract  from  his  final  reputation. 

The  rest  of  the  campaign  may  be  rapidly  reviewed.  On  May 
24th,    General    Middleton    arrived    at    Battleford ;    two    days    later 

*  Toronto  Mail.     Letter  published  editorially  on  J  uly  24,  I885. 


468  THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 

Poundmaker  and  his  chiefs  surrendered  ;  on  the  30th  the  General, 
with  gatlings,  infantry  and  cavalry  left  by  steamer  to  help  Strange  at 
Fort  Pitt  ;  within  a  few  days  separate  forces  under  Strange  and  Otter, 
with  Mounted  Police  from  Prince  Albert  and  a  body  of  men  under 
the  General  himself,  were  converging  from  different  points  upon  the 
trail  of  Big  Bear.  After  a  stern  chase  over  extremely  difficult  coun- 
try, however,  the  pursuit  was  ultimately  abandoned  and  it  was  not 
until  July  2nd  that  the  Indian  leader  came  in  and  voluntarily  surren- 
dered. The  rising  was  now  at  an  end.  The  wearied  and  war-worn 
volunteers  returned  to  their  homes  and,  at  Toronto,  Montreal,  Halifax 
and  other  points  received  ovations  which  are  worthy  of  more  than  a 
mere  scanty  reference  here  and  which  stamped  a  spirit  of  growing 
Canadian  patriotism  deep  down  into  many  a  hitherto  doubting  heart. 

Riel,  after  a  prolonged  trial — held  during  a  keen  racial  and  sec- 
tarian controversy  aroused  through  his  being  partly  French  by  extrac- 
tion and  presumably  Catholic  in  religion — was  hung  at  Regina  on 
the  1 6th  of  November.  The  majesty  of  the  law  and  the  common  sense 
of  national  order  were  thus  sternly  vindicated  as  they  should  have  been 
fifteen  years  before.  Eight  Indians  were  hung  for  murder  and  a 
number  imprisoned  for  different  terms.  Amongst  the  latter  was 
Poundmaker,  who  was  given  three  years  in  the  penitentiary  and  died 
before  his  term  expired.  A  medal  and  clasp  was  issued  by  the 
Imperial  authorities  to  all  who  participated  in  the  suppression  of  the 
insurrection  ;  the  Hon.  Adolphe  P.  Caron,  who  had  proven  himself 
an  energetic  and  effective  Minister  of  Militia,  was  made  a  K.  C.  M.  G. ; 
General  Middleton,  amidst  wide  approval,  was  given  the  same 
honour  tosfether  with  the  thanks  of  the  Canadian  Parliament  and  a 
vote  of  $20,000. 

An  unfortunate  aftermath  occurred  to  the  latter  in  the  discovery  of 
certain  alleged  irregularities  in  connection  with  aseizure  of  furs  belong- 
ing to  the  rebels.    The  confiscation  seems  to  have  been  permitted  by  the 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885  469 

General  without  much  thought  and  with  the  knowledge  and  concurrence 
of  Mr.  Hayter  Reed,  a  Government  official  who  accompanied  him  in 
an  advisory  capacity  in  connection  with  Indian  and  Half-breed  civil 
affairs.  Some  of  these  furs  were  divided  up  amongst  the  General's 
Staff,  with  his  permission,  and  a  few  were  allotted  to  him.  "  As  to 
my  own  share,"  he  said  in  his  pathetic  Address  to  the  people  of 
Canada,  issued  on  August  21,  1890,  "I  never  received  it,  asked  for 
it,  or  thought  about  it  afterwards."  Yet,  when  the  question  of  these 
furs  was  brought  up  by  some  irresponsible  person,  it  was  promptly 
seized  upon  by  politicians  as  a  means  of  damaging  the  Government 
and  the  latter  very  ungenerously  and  weakly  tried  to  escape  criticism 
as  to  their  management  of  civil  matters  in  the  North-West  during  the 
Rebellion  by  throwing  the  responsibility  upon  the  General. 

Then  came  a  sort  of  hue  and  cry  which  is  sometimes  character- 
istic of  democracies,  and  in  this  case  was  intensely  discreditable,  against 
the  General.  At  an  earlier  date  the  Government  had  refused  to 
make  good  General  Middleton's  recommendations  for  honours  and 
promotions  because  there  were  no  French-Canadians  included  in  the 
list  and  the  members  of  Parliament  and  press  of  that  Province  had 
keenly  resented  the  omission.  They  now  joined  readily  enough  in 
attacking  the  General,  while  the  Opposition,  too,  thought  they  saw 
some  political  capital  in  the  incident.  Many  of  them  did  not  like  an 
Imperial  Commander  of  the  Militia  and  considered  this  as  one  more 
opportunity  to  throw  discredit  upon  the  system.  The  General  was, 
therefore,  thrown  to  the  wolves  of  partisanship  and  the  Report  of 
a  Select  Committee  of  the  House  was  distinctly  against  him.  His 
resignation  had  to  follow  and  an  honest  English  gentleman  and  gal- 
lant officer,  who  would  rather  have  cut  his  hand  off  than  commit  a 
dishonourable  action,  was  compelled  to  leave  the  country  under  sus- 
picion by  not  a  few  of  having  actually  stolen  furs !  The  whole 
episode   was   discreditable    to    Canada   and    to    Canadians  and  the 


470 


THE  NORTH-WEST  AND  THE  REBELLION  OF  1885 


Imperial  Government  never  did  a  more  just  action  than  in  receiving 
Sir  Fred.  Middleton  with  favour  and  making  him  Keeper  of  the  Crown 
Jewels  in  the  Tower  of  London. 

The  Rebellion  by  this  time  had  been  long  passed,  its  issues  more 
or  less  forgotten,  its  causes  obliterated  or  healed,  its  subsequent  poli- 
tical complications  in  French  Canada  soothed  and  modified.  But  the 
fact  of  Canadian  troops  having  carried  themselves  so  well  ;  the  memo- 
ries of  the  killed  and  wounded  at  Cut  Knife  and  Fish  Creek  and 
Batoche  ;  the  feeling  of  unity  which  grew  as  a  result  of  Canadians 
from  so  many  Provinces  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder  in  a  struggle 
on  Canadian  soil  ;  the  remembrance  of  the  spontaneous  enthusiasm 
which  everywhere  greeted  the  returning  troops  ;  had  combined  to 
develop  the  slowly-growing  national  sentiment  of  the  people  as 
neither  Confederation  nor  the  great  practical  measures  of  progress 
during  ensuing  years  had  been  able  to  do.  Out  of  evil  had  come 
good  ;  out  of  rebellion  had  come  greater  unity  ;  out  of  war  had  come 
a  wider  patriotism. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

Quebec  and  the  Jesuits  Estates  Question 

THERE  is  much  in  the  poHtical  history  of  modern  Quebec  that 
is  incomprehensible  to  the  average  Canadian  outside  of  that 
Province  and  much  in  its  pecuHar  combination  of  Church  and 
State  and  racial  interests  that  is  of  importance  to  every  citizen  of  the 
Dominion  as  well  as  essential  to  a  knowledge  of  the  myriad  threads 
going  into  the  composition  of  our  Canadian  story.  All  these  and 
other  phases  of  Provincial  feeling  found  a  place  round  the  aggressive, 
genial,  eloquent  and  yet  corrupt  figure  of  M.  Honore  Mercier. 

QUEBEC    CONSERVATIVE    IN    POLITICS 

From  Confederation  up  to  his  time  Quebec  had  been  mainly 
Conservative  in  its  political  complexion — loyal  to  Sir  John  Macdonald 
in  Dominion  policy,  loyal  to  Conservative  leaders  in  local  matters, 
loyal  to  the  Church  of  the  French  people  in  its  then  unquestioned 
sympathy  with  Canadian  Toryism.  The  Conservative  Ministries  of 
P.  J.  O.  Chauveau,  George  Ouimet  and  C.  E.  B.  de  Boucherville 
succeeded  one  another  between  1867  and  1878.  Then,  after  a  brief 
year  of  Liberalism  under  the  Hon.  H.  G.  Joly  de  Lotbinlere,  the  old 
party  re-assumed  office  under  the  late  Sir  J.  A.  Chapleau  and  J.  A. 
Mousseau,  J.  J.  Ross  and  L.  O.  Taillon,  as  successive  Premiers  up 
to  1887. 

A  central  figure  of  Conservatism  in  Quebec  during  these  years 

was  Sir  Adolphe  Chapleau.      Brilliant   in   speech,   clever   in  political 

management  and  perhaps  not  too  exacting  in  political  morals,  he  was 

for  long  one   of  the  great   leaders   of  his  race  and   party   in    both 

Provincial  halls  and  Dominion  Parliament.     Opposed  to  him  there 

471     . 


472  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTIONS 

was  no  really  commanding  figure  until  the  appearance  on  the  scene 
of  Hon'ore  Mercier  and  Wilfrid  Laurier.  Resembline  each  other  in 
vivacity  and  eloquence  and  in  the  graceful  charm  of  French  manners, 
no  two  men  could  be  more  unlike  in  character,  in  the  faculty  of 
personal  growth,  and  in  the  test  of  ultimate  success,  than  were 
these  two  leaders  of  French  Liberalism.  They  were  drawn  into  the 
crucible  of  conflict  upon  the  Riel  question  and  the  former  came  out 
successful  in  Provincial  matters  while  the  latter  was  defeated  in  his 
Dominion  campaign  as  a  leader  of  the  Liberal  party.  Yet  victory 
in  the  former  case  meant  ultimate  downfall ;  in  the  latter  case  defeat 
spelt  triumph  of  the  highest  kind  which  a  political  leader  can  win. 
The  result  perhaps  turned  more  upon  the  personality  of  the  men 
than  upon  differences  in  their  actual  poliry, 

RISING    SPIRIT    OY    SECTARIANISM    AND    SECTIONALISM 

Mercier,  in  1885,  had  flashed  like  a  meteor  across  the  political 
horizon.  The  moment  was  opportune.  Louis  Riel  had  been 
executed  at  Regina  for  his  leadership  of  the  Rebellion,  despite  the 
more  or  less  fiery  protests  from  French  Canada — made  under  the 
zealously  propagated  belief  that  he  was  being  punished  at  the 
instigation  of  the  Orangemen  of  Ontario  for  the  crime  of  being  a 
Roman  Catholic  and  a  French  Half-breed!  Great  meetings  had  been 
held  in  Montreal  addressed  by  Mercier  and  Laurier,  and  the  rising 
spirit  of  sectarianism  and  sectionalism  was  being  fanned  into  a  flame. 
The  French  members  of  the  Dominion  Government — Chapleau,  Sir 
Hector  Langevin  and  Sir  Adolphe  Caron — were  urged  to  resign  and 
the  first-named  was  formally  offered  the  leadership  of  what  was  to  be 
called  "  Le  Parti  Nationale."  He  refused  in  ringing  terms,  Mercier 
accepted  with  equal  eloquence  and  the  battle  was  on  between  parties 
and  leaders  alike. 

An  important  change  in  the  situation,  as  compared  with  past 
political  conflicts,  was  very  apparent.      Hitherto  the  Roman  Catholic 


QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION  473 

Church  had  been  in  antagonism  to,  or  antagonized  by,  the  principles 
of  Liberalism  in  the  Province.  Now,  a  great  split  in  the  Conservative 
party  seemed  inevitable  from  the  fact  of  Mercier  taking  high  ground 
for  the  Church  and  winning  into  the  ranks  of  his  new  "  National 
Party"  the  Ultramontanes,  or  extreme  ecclesiastical  element. 
Meanwhile,  Riel  had  suffered  for  his  crimes  upon  the  scaffold  at 
Regina.  During  1886  the  Provincial  elections  took  place  and  Mr. 
Mercier  flung  himself  into  the  fray  with  fiery  eloquence  and  force. 
He  battered  at  the  hitherto  invulnerable  walls  of  local  Conservatism 
with  all  the  power  of  a  position  which  included  appeals  to  racial  pre- 
judice and  religious  bigotry  and,  in  the  end,  won  the  day.  Mr.  Taillon 
did  not  immediately  resign  but,  on  the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  was 
defeated  and  Mercier  became  Prime  Minister  on  January  27,  1887, 
It  was  a  striking  victory  for  a  man  who  had  never  held  office  except 
for  a  few  months  in  the  Joly  Ministry  of  1879  and  who  had  faced  the 
eloquent  Chapleau  and  all  the  organized  power  of  Quebec  Conserva- 
tism. The  meteor  now  for  a  time  staid  its  course  and  the  public 
wondered  what  would  follow  a  conflict  which  had  resulted  in  the 
overthrow  of  old  parties,  the  breaking  of  old  political  and  ecclesiasti- 
cal ties,  the  raising  of  the  evil  spirits  of  race  antagonism  and  religious 
prejudice. 

Meanwhile,  the  Riel  question  had  precipitated  a  very  important 
crisis  in  Dominion  affairs.  As  the  tide  of  Mercierism  in  Quebec  rose 
higher  and  higher  it  looked  as  if  the  Conservative  party  was  to  be 
submercred  in   Dominion  as  well  as   Provincial    matters.      Even    the 

o 

magnetic  personality  of  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald  appeared  to  have  lost 
its  influence  in  this  wild  war  of  words  over  the  death  of  a  weak  and 
worthless  rebel.  He  was  freely  denounced  by  French-Canadian 
speakers  as  "  the  enemy  of  our  nationality  "  and  was  burned  in  effigy 
at  Montreal,  whilst  Chapleau,  Langevin  and  Caron  were  bracketed 
together  in  public  resolutions  as  "  traitors  to  their  country."     Riel  had 


47-1  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 

come  to  be  regarded  as  the  hero  of  Quebec  and  one  of  the  poHtical 
martyrs  of  his  race  ;  Mr.  Mercier  was  the  leader  of  a  movement  which, 
in  the  sacred  names  of  race  and  reHgion,  would  eventually  avenge  his 
wicked  execution  ;  the  Parti-Nationale  was  to  sweep  out  of  existence 
the  enemies  of  French  Canada  and  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and 
Mr.  Laurier  was  to  lead  in  the  Dominion  part  of  the  project ;  the 
Province  of  Ontario  was  to  be  stirred  up  by  Mr.  Blake  against  those 
who  had  committed  what  30,000  people  on  the  Champ  de  Mars  in 
Montreal  declared  to  be  "  an  act  of  inhumanity  and  cruelty  unworthy 
of  a  civilized  nation." 

The  flame  of  sectarian  and  sectional  passion  became  so  pronounced 
that  even  Sir  John  Macdonald,  hopeful  and  optimistic  as  he  naturally 
was,  feared  his  Government  would  hardly  weather  the  storm.  Le 
Monde,  a  French  Conservative  paper,  said  after  the  execution  of  Riel, 
and  in  doing  so  voiced  the  general  sentiment  of  the  press  in  Quebec, 
that  :  "  Fanaticism  wants  a  victim  ;  Riel  has  been  offered  as  a  hola- 
caust ;  and  Orangeism  has  hanged  him  for  hate  and  to  satisfy  an  old 
thirst  for  revenge."  The  Toronto  Mail,  the  old-time  Conservative 
organ,  but  now  verging  upon  direct  opposition  to  the  Government, 
threw  fuel  on  the  rising  flames  by  declaring  "  that  the  Conquest 
will  have  to  be  fought  over  again  "  and  that  the  result  would  do  away 
with  the  privileges  of  1763.  The  Orange  Sentinel,  in  reply  to  the 
bitter  diatribes  of  its  Quebec  contemporaries,  declared  before  the 
execution  that  if  the  Government  dared  not  hang  the  rebel  the  day 
would  not  be  far  distant  when  "  the  call  to  arms  will  again  resound 
throughout  the  Dominion." 

THE    DEBATE    IN    THE    COMMONS 

Such  was  the  position  on  March  11,  1886,  when  Mr.  Landry  pre- 
sented in  the  House  of  Commons  a  somewhat  famous  Resolution  to 
the  following  effect  :  "  That  this  House  feels  it  its  duty  to  express  its 
deep   regret   that   the  sentence    of    death   passed  upon    Louis    Riel, 


THE  HON.  GEORGE  V/.  ROSS,  LL.D. 

Premier  of  Ontario  in  1900 


THE  HON.  DAVID  MILLS,  Q.C. 
Senator  of  Canada  and  Minister  of  Justice 


THE  HON.  WILLIAM    STEVENS  FIELDING 

M.P. 

Finance  Minister  of  Canada,  1896-1900 


THE  HON.  ANDREW  G.   BLAIR,   Q.C,  M.P. 
Prime  Minister  of  New  Brunswick,  1882-96 


QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION  /^ril 

convicted  of  high  treason,  was  allowed  to  be  carried  into  execution." 
This  Conservative  member  of  Parliament  described  the  Government's 
action  in  a  strain  of  the  fiercest  invective  and  in  language  which  was 
very  frequently  duplicated  during  the  ensuing  debate.  This  carrying 
out  of  the  laws  of  the  land  against  a  blood-stained,  calculating,  cor- 
rupt and  twice-guilty  rebel  was  to  him  a  provocation  flung  at  the  face 
of  a  whole  nationality,  a  breach  of  the  laws  of  justice,  an  evidence  of 
weakness  on  the  part  of  the  Ministry,  the  gratification  of  a  long- 
sought  vengeance,  the  wanton  sacrifice  of  a  French-Canadian  Catholic 
upon  the  altar  of  sectarian  hatred  and  bigotry.  Many  other  speakers 
followed.  Mr.  Clarke  Wallace  declared  that  out  of  2,000  Orange 
lodges  in  the  country  only  six  had  passed  resolutions  on  the  subject. 
Mr.  M.  C.  Cameron  denounced  the  Government  for  having  "trafficked 
in  the  destiny  of  a  fellow  mortal."  Mr.  Wilfrid  Laurier,  in  a  speech 
which  was  remarkable  for  the  purity  of  its  diction  and  the  beauty  of 
its  language  and  style  declared  his  own  belief  and  that  of  his  Prov- 
ince to  be  that  the  execution  of  Riel  was  '*  the  sacrifice  of  a  life,  not  to 
inexorable  justice,  but  to  bitter  passion  and  revenge."  Sir  Hector 
Langevin  and  Sir  Adolphe  Caron  strongly  defended  the  Government 
to  which  they  belonged. 

Then  came  the  most  important  event  of  the  debate — the  speech 
of  Mr.  Blake  and  the  first  prominent  appearance  of  Mr.  J.  S.  D. 
Thompson  upon  the  arena  of  Dominion  affairs.  A  man  of  solid 
attainments,  high  character  and  excellent  reputation,  the  latter  had 
been  a  moderately  successful  Premier  of  Nova  Scotia,  a  very  success- 
ful Judge  of  its  Supreme  Court  and  had  lately  been  appointed  Min- 
ister of  Justice  at  Ottawa.  Practically,  the  House  had  not  yet  heard 
from  him.  Mr.  Blake  was  still  the  Liberal  leader.  He  had  been 
defeated  in  the  elections  of  1882  and  had  now  turned  all  his  remark- 
able legal  acumen,  his  keen  intellect  and  patient  perseverance  in 
research  to  build   up  a  case  which,  by  logic  and  force  of  argument, 


478  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 

should  help  to  bring  victory  to  his  banners  in  1887.  To  the  wavering 
fabric  of  prejudice  and  passion,  the  creation  of  racial  and  religious 
bitterness,  which  had  beeVi  evolved  in  the  country  and  Parliament,  he 
now  sought  in  a  speech  which  was  admittedly  a  great  one  to  give  a 
basis  of  strength,  a  foundation  of  fact.  It  was  a  remarkable  effort  in 
its  close  reasoning,  its  display  of  constitutional  knowledge,  its  vigor- 
ous invective.  Precedents  and  authorities  and  references  flowed  from 
him  as  though  created  expressly  for  the  occasion  and  intended  by  fate 
to  fit  like  stones  into  the  foundation  of  the  political  building  he  was 
seeking  to  strengthen.  The  House  expected  a  great  speech  and 
received  it. 

It  was  different  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Thompson,     Even  the  most 
enthusiastic   Conservative  did   not  expect   this   new  Minister,  about 
whom  he  felt  some  natural  curiosity,  to  do  more  than   present  a  fair 
case  for  himself  and  his  cause.      For  him  to   overthrow   Mr.  Blake's 
elaborate  structure  was  not  thought  possible.     The   Liberals   would 
have    laughed   heartily  had    anyone    claimed    that   this  short,   stout, 
fresh-coloured,  young-looking  man  from   Nova  Scotia  would  prove  a 
match  for  Edward  Blake.     Success  in  such  a  supposition  meant  the 
defeat  of  the  greatest  logician  and  debater  in  the  House  of  Commons 
and  the  complete  defence  of  the  Government  in  a  matter  involving  most 
intricate  constitutional  issues.     It  would  mean  that  a  new  man  had 
pitted  himself  victoriously  against  a  veteran  in  Parliamentary  life  and 
constitutional  lore.   Yet  this  was  exactly  what  happened,  on  the  1 2th  of 
March,  in  a  crowded    House   and  from  a  speech  which  received  the 
closest  and  most  critical  attention.      For  two  hours  the  quiet,  unpre- 
tentious  speaker  held   his  audience  so  that  a  pin   might  have   been 
heard  to  fall.     The  new  Minister  was,  in  fact,  master  of  himself,  mas- 
ter of  his  subject,  master  of  the  law  in  its  theory,  practice  and  prece- 
dent, master  of  the  House.     He  pierced  the  armour  of  Mr.  Blake's 
argument  with  the  most   direct  and  irresistible  skill  and,  while  not 


QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION  479 

appealing  in  the  least  to  his  hearers'  passions,  prejudices  or  sympa- 
thies, he  subdued  a  critical  and  censorious  body  of  men  by  the  pure 
force  of  reasoning  and  logic. 

Three  days  afterwards  the  Government  found  themselves  with  a 
majority  of  146  to  42.  The  threatened  secession  of  the  French 
element  in  the  party  had  been  averted  and  a  new  leader  had  appeared 
who  was  to  keep  on  growing  in  political  stature  until  he  became 
Prime  Minister  of  Canada  in  1892.  The  strength  which  his  speech 
brought  to  the  Government  was  sorely  needed  and  so  was  the  not 
inconsiderable  help  which  the  fact  of  his  being  a  Roman  Catholic 
carried  with  it.  For  the  time,  however,  although  the  Conservative 
majority  in  the  House  was  safe,  Mr.  Mercier  and  Mr,  Laurier  seemed 
to  hold  Quebec  in  the  hollow  of  their  hands.  Paper  after  paper  went 
over  to  the  Liberals  and  fresh  disaffection  in  the  Conservative  party 
ranks  was  a  matter  of  daily  report.  The  Provincial  elections,  as 
already  described,  had  gone  in  favour  of  Mercier  and  the  finger  on 
the  wall  of  fate  appeared  to  indicate  the  coming  defeat  of  the 
Dominion  Government.  But,  in  January,  1887,  when  the  contest 
came  on,  the  eloquence  of  Chapleau  was  pitted  successfully  against 
that  of  Laurier  ;  the  influence  of  Langevin  with  the  Church,  as  a 
whole,  was  found  equal  to  that  of  Mercier  with  the  Ultramontane 
element ;  the  ringing  campaign  oratory  of  the  Hon.  George  E.  Fos- 
ter, who  had  come  into  the  Government  about  the  same  time  as  Mr. 
Thompson,  proved  singularly  effective  in  the  English  Provinces  ;  the 
logical  reasoning  of  the  latter  carried  conviction  to  many  minds ; 
while  over  all,  and  mingled  with  all  the  other  influences,  was  the 
magnetic  personality  of  Sir  John  Macdonald.  The  result  was  a  Con- 
servative victory,  with  numbers  even  in  Quebec,  a  sweeping  majority 
in  the  Maritime  Provinces  and  the  North-West,  and  a  fair  one  in 
Ontario.  A  little  later  the  accession  of  Mr.  Wilfrid  Laurier  to  the 
Liberal  leadership,  in  succession   to  Mr.  Blake  was  announced — the 


48o  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 

first  French-Canadian  party  leader  of  both  races  since  the  days  when 
nominal  power  rested  in  the  hands  of  Sir  Etienne  Tache  or  Sir 
Narcisse  Belleau. 

ORIGIN    OF    THE    JESUITS    ESTATES    QUESTION 

Another  question  was  now  looming  upon  the  political  horizon 
which,  in  the  end,  appealed  to  many  of  the  same  passions  and  preju- 
dices as  those  surrounding  the  name  of  Riel.  The  first  stages  in  the 
history  of  the  Jesuits  Estates  issue  did  not  seem  to  involve  any  seri- 
ous results.  On  the  3rd  of  July,  1888,  a  Bill  for  the  settlement  of  a 
long-standing  dispute  between  the  Society  of  Jesus,  the  hierarchy  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Quebec,  and  the  Province  itself,  was 
passed  without  opposition  or  contest  through  the  Lower  House  of  the 
Quebec  Legislature.  It  went  through  the  Council,  also,  without 
opposition  and  in  due  course  was  assented  to  by  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  and  became  law — subject,  of  course,  within  a  certain  period 
to  disallowance  by  the  Dominion  authorities  should  the  legislation  be 
considered  unconstitutional  or  danoferous  to  the  interest  of  the  coun- 
try  as  a  whole.  At  first  there  was  neither  popular  opposition  nor 
serious  criticism.  With  one  or  two  exceptions,  not  a  paper  in  Quebec 
discussed  the  matter  from  a  hostile  standpoint  and  the  Protestant 
Committee  of  Public  Instruction  quietly  accepted  the  promise  of  $60,- 
000  for  their  schools  which  was  included  in  the  measure. 

It  seemed,  therefore,  as  if  this  was  to  prove  a  satisfactory  settle- 
ment of  a  prolonged  controversy  and  a  complex  problem.  In  origin 
the  issue  had  been  simple  enough.  During  their  heroic  missionary 
labours  in  early  Canada,  the  Jesuits  had  acquired  lands  and  wealth  for 
their  Order  while  winning  laurels  of  martyrdom  and  personal  fame  for 
themselves.  In  1791,  after  the  general  suppression  of  the  Order  by 
the  Pope,  the  King  of  Great  Britain  issued  a  proclamation  endorsing 
its  suppression  in  Canada,  but  allowing  the  use  of  estates  and  incomes 
to  the  members  so  long  as  any  of  them  should  be  alive.     By  1800  the 


QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION  481 

last  Jesuit  in  Quebec  had  passed  away  and  the  properties  of  the 
Order,  it  was  claimed,  were  escheated  to  the  Crown.  But  in  cases 
of  escheat  a  liberal  proportion  is  frequently  appropriated  to  the  car- 
rying out  of  the  intention  of  the  donors,  or  to  indemnifying  those 
who  may  morally  consider  themselves  entitled  to  it.  It  was,  there- 
fore, believed  by  many,  and  including  some  of  the  leaders  in  the 
Church,  that  the  re-instatement  of  the  Jesuits  by  the  Vatican  at  a 
later  date,  together  with  their  incorporation  by  the  Province,  gave 
them  this  moral  right — such  as  it  was.  The  hierarchy  of  the  Church 
in  Quebec  claimed,  on  the  other  hand,  that  under  the  terms  of  origi- 
nal suppression  by  the  Pope,  the  estates  should  have  passed  to  the 
Church  as  a  whole  and  not  to  the  Crown. 

Hence  a  political  situation  in  a  Catholic  Province  which  made  it 
very  difficult  for  successive  Governors  or  Governments  to  move  in 
the  matter  of  satisfying  either  party  in  the  Church,  or  of  selling  the 
lands  so  as  to  benefit  the  people  at  large.  At  every  attempt  to  do  so 
they  were  met  by  vigorous  protests  against  the  diversion  of  any  of 
the  properties  from  the  charitable  or  religious  purposes  to  which  they 
had  been  orginally  devoted  by  private  donors,  or  by  grants  from  the 
King  of  France.  There  was  only  one  authority,  in  connection  with 
the  subject,  whom  both  elements  of  thought  in  the  Church  would 
recognize  and  whose  decision  would  be  accepted  without  demur. 
But  to  the  Pope  no  Provincial  Government  had  hitherto  cared  to 
appeal.  Complications  were  possible  and  political  troubles,  greater 
than  any  ills  which  would  follow  the  further  postponement  of  the 
matter,  were  always  in  view.  Mr.  Mercier,  however,  with  all  his  faults 
did  not  lack  courage.  He  decided  to  settle  the  affair — and  at  the 
same  time  please  the  Ultramontanes  who  had  stood  by  him  in  the 
elections — by  referring  it  to  Pope  Leo  XHI.,  as  a  sort  of  arbitrator. 
His  Holiness  accepted  the  position,  after  full  explanations  had  been 

offered  at  the  Vatican,  and  appointed  the  Archbishop  of  Quebec  to 
26 


482  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 

act    as    his   attorney    in  the    subsequent    negotiations.      This    latter 
arrangement,  however,  was  subsequently  cancelled. 

The  Quebec  Premier  succeeded  under  these  conditions  in  mak- 
ing an  agreement  by  which  the  Jesuits  were  to  receive  $400,000  in 
quittance  of  claims  aggregating  $2,000,000  and  a  much-vexed  question 
was  to  be  apparently  disposed  of.  In  the  preamble  to  his  measure, 
however,  he  made  the  mistake  of  introducing  the  Pope's  name  as  a 
sort  of  supreme  arbiter  between  parties  and  sections  in  the  Province. 
Whether  this  was  done  purposely,  or  ignorantly,  whether  it  was  con- 
ceived in  a  spirit  of  religious  bigotry,  or  arose  out  of  absolute  forget- 
fulness  that  the  rest  of  the  Dominion  was  largely  different  in  creed 
from  his  own  Province,  matters  little  in  the  result.  And,  whatever 
significance  there  may  have  been  in  such  legislation,  as  carried  out 
under  the  approval  and  arrangement  of  the  authorities  at  Rome,  it 
certainly  passed  unnoticed  for  the  moment  by  the  people  of  Quebec 
as  a  whole.  The  result  was  very  different  elsewhere.  If  Quebec  had 
been  in  a  flame  of  fury  over  the  Riel  matter  Ontario  was  now  roused, 
slowly  but  surely,  to  a  white-heat  of  indignation  over  this  introduction 
of  the  Pope's  name  and  power  into  Canadian  legislation.  Of  course, 
in  each  case,  it  was  only  a  portion  of  the  people  who  were  so  greatly 
stirred  up,  but  it  was  not  the  less  a  vociferous  element  and  one  which 
found  plentiful  means  of  expression. 

A     KEEN    SECTARIAN    CONTROVERSY 

Aggressive  Protestantism  in  Ontario  became  fiercely  angry. 
Orange  lodges  poured  out  denunciatory  resolutions  and  the  Toronto 
Mail  renewed  its  able  but  unwise  attacks  upon  Quebec  and  its  reli- 
gious institutions.  The  Jesuits,  as  an  Order  and  as  individuals,  were 
painted  in  the  blackest  shades  which  tongue  or  pen  could  produce 
and  all  the  pages  of  history  were  ransacked  for  illustrations  which 
could  inflame  public  opinion.  Very  soon  the  Protestant  minority  in 
Quebec  caught  fire  from  the  flames  of  agitation  elsewhere  and  began 


QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 


483 


to  feel  that  they  must  have  been  deeply  injured  and  that  they  should 
join  in  the  movement  for  compelling  the  Federal  Government  to  disal- 
low the  obnoxious  measure.     On  the   other  hand   the  French  press 
took  speedy  and  intense  offence  at  the  remarks  of  some  of  their  critics 
in  the  other  Provinces  and,  before  long,  as  bitter  a  sectarian  struggle 
as  Canada  had  ever  seen  seemed  on  the  point  of  serious  consummation. 
For  some  time  it  was  unknown  what  the  Dominion  Government 
would  do.      From  a  political  standpoint  they  appeared  to  be  on  the 
horns  of  a  serious  dilemma.      If  they  disallowed  the  measure  Quebec 
would  probably  be  lost  to  the  party  ;  if  they  allowed  it  to  become 
law  Ontario  promised  to  cause  an  equally  serious  loss  of  support.   On 
February  13,  1889,  the  first  mutterings  of  the  inevitable   Parliamen- 
tary storm  were  heard  as   Mr.  J.  A.  Barron  rose  in  his  place  to  ask 
certain  questions  about  the  Jesuits  Estates  Act  of  the  Quebec  Legis- 
lature.    The  Minister  of  Justice  in  clear  and   concise   terms   replied 
that  the  Government  had  considered  the  matter  and  that  he  had  him- 
self reported  the  Act  to  the  Governor-General  as  one  which  should 
(from  a  legal  and  constitutional  standpoint)  be  left  to  its  operation. 
Mr.  Thompson  was  at  once  made  the  centre  of  a  fierce  campaign. 
His  attitude  in  the  Riel  question  was   forgotten   and  it  was  declared 
that  religious  prejudices  had  guided  him  in  the  present  case.     The 
Rev.    Dr.   George   Douglas   of  Montreal,  Dr.   Carman,    head   of  the 
Methodist  Church  in  Canada,  Canon  (afterwards  Bishop)  Du  Moulin, 
Principal  Caven  of  Knox  College  and  many  other  divines,  attacked 
him  personally  and  the  Government  generally  in  terms  of  fiery  invec- 
tive and  indignation. 

o 

Meetings  were  held  in  Toronto  and  elsewhere  as  fiercely  Protest- 
ant in  their  tone  as  the  Montreal  gatherings  of  1885  had  been  French 
and  Catholic  in  character.  Mr.  D'Alton  McCarthy,  Q.  C,  a  leading 
lawyer  and  eminent  pleader,  a  much  respected  and  able  man,  cham- 
pioned the  new  principle  of  proposed  Equal  Rights   in  speeches  of 


484  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 

force  and  considerable  weight.  Finally,  after  much  political  pertur- 
bation, action  was  taken  in  the  House  of  Commons  by  a  Resolution  pre- 
sented on  March  26th  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  William  E.  O'Brien,  It 
was  not  yet  known  what  the  Opposition  would  do,  nor  was  the  strength 
of  the  extreme  Protestant  feeling  in  the  House  quite  understood.  It 
was  pretty  clear,  however,  that  Mr.  McCarthy,  who  was  the  real  leader 
of  the  movement,  could  hardly  get  enough  followers  to  defeat  the 
Government,  in  coalition  with  the  Liberals,  unless  the  French  Con- 
servative members  should  refrain  from  voting  altogether.  The  motion 
was  a  strong  one,  and  very  cleverly  phrased,  in  the  following  words : 

"  That  an  humble  Address  be  presented  to  His  Excellency  the  Governor-Gen- 
eral setting  forth  :  (i.)  That  this  House  regards  the  power  of  disallowing  the  Acts  of 
the  Legislative  Assemblies  of  the  Provinces,  vested  in  His  Excellency-in- Council,  as  a 
prerogative  essential  to  the  national  existence  of  the  Dominion  ;  (2.)  That  this  great 
power,  while  it  should  never  be  wantonly  exercised,  should  be  fearlessly  used  for  the 
protection  of  the  rights  of  a  minority,  for  the  preservation  of  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  the  Constitution,  and  for  safe -guarding  the  general  interests  of  the  people  ; 
(3.)  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  House  the  passage  by  the  Legislature  of  the  Province 
of  Quebec  of  the  Act  entitled  '  An  Act  respecting  the  settlement  of  the  Jesuits 
Estates '  is  beyond  the  power  of  that  Legislature.  Firstly,  because  it  endows  from 
public  funds  a  religious  organization,  thereby  violating  the  undoubted  constitutional 
principle  of  the  complete  separation  of  Church  and  State.  Secondly,  because  it  recog- 
nizes the  usurpation  of  a  right  by  foreign  authority,  namely.  His  Holiness  the  Pope  of 
Rome,  to  claim  that  his  consent  was  necessary  to  empower  the  Provincial  Legislature 
to  dispose  of  a  portion  of  the  public  domain  and,  also,  because  the  Act  is  made  to 
depend  upon  the  will,  and  the  appropriation  of  the  grant  thereby  made  as  subject  to 
the  control  of  the  same  authority.  And,  thirdly,  because  the  endowment  of  the  Society 
of  Jesus,  an  alien,  secret  and  politico-religious  body,  the  expulsion  of  which  from  every 
Christian  community  wherein  it  has  had  footing  has  been  rendered  necessary  by  its 
intolerant  and  mischievous  inter-meddling  with  the  functions  of  civil  government,  is 
frought  with  danger  to  the  civil  and  rehgious  liberties  of  the  people  of  Canada.  And 
this  House,  therefore,  prays  that  His  Excellency  will  be  graciously  pleased  to  disallow 
the  said  Act." 


j;   \ 

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F 

GILBERT  PARKER,  D.C.L.,  M.P. 


WILLIAM   WILFRID  CAMPBELL 


ARCHIBALD  LAMPMAN 


CHARLES  G.  D.  ROBERTS 


QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION  487 

This  lengthy  indictment  of  the  Act  and  criticism  of  the  posi- 
tion assumed  by  the  Government,  is  given  in  full  here  because  it 
sums  up  succintly  and  clearly  the  case  presented  in  many  speeches 
upon  a  myriad  platforms  during  the  succeeding  year.  It  was  skilfully 
worded  and  intended  to  obtain  support  from  all  who  believed  in  limit- 
ing Provincial  powers  of  legislation  ;  of  all  who  disliked  or  dreaded 
Roman  Catholicism  ;  of  all  who  shared  in  a  popular  Protestant  aver- 
sion to  the  Papal  temporal  power  and  the  extension  of  Jesuit  influ- 
ence. The  debate  which  followed  was  a  most  interesting  one  from 
the  amount  of  historical  research  that  was  in  evidence,  if  for  no  other 
reason.  The  Jesuits  were  defended  or  denounced  in  every  phrase  of 
praise  or  execration  which  could  be  found  in  the  pages  of  the  past. 
Colonel  O'Brien,  Mr.  J.  C.  Rykert,  Mr.  J.  A.  Barron  and  Mr.  C.  C. 
Colby  followed  each  other  in  speeches  pro  and  con.  Mr.  Colby,  him- 
self a  Protestant,  presented  a  most  interesting  picture  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  as  a  political  instrument  of  defence  against  danger- 
ous elements  existent  in  all  countries  to-day.  "  It  recognizes,"  he 
declared,  "  the  slipremacy  of  authority  ;  it  teaches  observance  to  law  ; 
it  teaches  respect  for  the  good  order  and  constituted  authorities  of 
society."  He  described  it,  very  properly,  as  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
infidelity,  the  spirit  of  anarchy  and  the  spirit  which  has  np  respect  for 
existing  institutions  of  any  kind. 

Mr.  McCarthy  followed  in  a  clear  and  cutting  arraignment  of 
the  Government  and  all  concerned,  in  either  passing  or  permitting 
such  a  measure.  After  him  came  Sir  John  Thompson  (he  had  been 
knighted  in  1888)  in  a  speech  which  was  as  great  in  matter  and  form  as 
his  famous  effort  upon  the  Riel  question.  Other  speakers  followed, 
notably  Mr.  Laurier,  Sir  John  Macdonald,  and  Sir  Richard  Cartwright 
and  then  a  division  took  place  in  which  the  motion  was  lost  by  1 18  to 
13.  It  had,  of  course,  been  known  before  this  that  the  Opposition 
was  going  to  vote  with  the   Government,  as  a  whole  and  in  order  to 


488  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 

vindicate  the  cherished  principle  of  Provincial  rights  under  which 
they  had  fought  various  contests  in  the  Provinces — especially  Ontario 
and  Manitoba — and  which  now  proved  a  very  pleasant  and  easy  plat- 
form for  both  parties  to  stand  upon.  This  division  disposed  of  the 
matter  so  far  as  Parliament  was  concerned  though  it  only  intensified 
discussion  outside.  Just  as  it  had  been  impossible  for  a  time  to  control 
the  storm  in  Quebec  over  the  execution  of  Riel  so  it  was  now  found 
impossible  to  check  the  agitation  in  Ontario  over  the  passage  of  this 
Act  and  its  allowance  by  the  Federal  authorities. 

Various  mass  meetings  were  held,  the  little  Parliamentary  minor- 
ity was  designated  the  "  Noble  Thirteen  "  and,  on  June  12,  1889,  ^^ 
a  Convention  held  in  Toronto,  the  Equal  Rights  Association  was 
formed.  This  body  assumed  that  the  Protestants  of  Quebec  required 
safe-guarding  and  undertook  to  do  that,  as  well  as  to  resist  the  appar- 
ently growing  encroachments  of  the  Church  of  Rome.  It  had  a 
number  of  influential  officers,  with  D'Alton  McCarthy  as  its  Parlia- 
mentary leader,  and  a  strong  support  from  many  very  sincere  and 
honest  people  throughout  the  Province.  Amongst  a  different  element 
there  also  arose  the  Protestant  Protective  Association  or  P.  P.  A.,  as 
an  avowed  and  bitter  antagonist  of  Roman  Catholicism  in  private  as 
well  as  public  life.  The  Governor-General  was  petitioned  by  Mr. 
Hugh  Graham,  of  Montreal,  to  refer  the  constitutionality  of  the  Act 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  Canada  for  consideration,  but  this  was 
refused  by  advice  of  the  Minister  of  Justice  whose  reasons  were 
given  at  length  in  an  able  State  paper  which  was  published  in  August. 
Petitions  were  also  presented  asking  for  disallowance — the  one  from 
Ontario  containing  156,000  signatures  and  one  from  Quebec  having 
9,000  names  signed  to  it.. 

On  August  2nd  a  deputation  had  waited  upon  the  Governor- 
General  bearing  these  petitions  and  asking  him  to  exercise  his  per- 
sonal prerogative   by  disallowing  the  legislation   in  question.      Lord 


QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION  489 

Stanley  of  Preston  listened  attentively  to  the  arguments  of  Principal 
Caven  and  others.  His  reply  amounted  to  the  simple  statement 
that  he  could  not  and  would  not  veto  a  measure  in  the  face  of  his  own 
Ministry  and  of  a  large  Parliamentary  majority  comprising  the  bulk 
of  both  parties  in  the  Dominion. 

FINAL   ADJUSTMENT    OF    THE     QUESTION 

Shortly  after  this  the  Protestant  Committee  of  the  Quebec 
Council  of  Public  Instruction  showed  their  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  money,  or  their  lack  of  appreciation  for  the  current  agitation,  by 
accepting  in  the  name  of  the  Protestants  of  the  Province  the  public 
trust  imposed  upon  them  for  the  distribution  or  use  of  the  $60,000 
granted  under  the  terms  of  the  famous  measure.  Certain  conditions 
were  made,  however,  which  Mr.  Mercier  accepted  without  hesitation 
and,  on  November  5th,  the  closing  scene  in  an  interesting  political 
drama  occurred  in  the  City  of  Quebec.  There,  in  presence  of  a  large 
gathering  of  representative  men,  the  $400,000  was  handed  over  in  the 
manner  previously  decided  upon.  A  cheque  for  $100,000  was  givefn 
to  the  Society  of  Jesus,  $40,000  went  to  Laval  University  and  the 
rest  was  divided  in  sums  of  $10,000  and  $20,000  amongst  certain 
interested  Dioceses.  The  Protestant  educational  authorities  also 
received  their  cheque. 

Nothing  now  remained  for  the  Equal  Rights  party  but  political 
revenge  and,  under  McCarthy's  leadership,  they  sought  it  in  the 
House  of  Commons  by  a  motion  against  the  using  of  an  official  dual 
language  in  Manitoba  or  the  North- West  Territories  and  by  a  Reso- 
lution advocating  the  proposed  submission  of  the  constitutional  issue 
to  the  Supreme  Court.  In  Ontario,  an  agitation  was  raised  against  the 
extension  of  the  Separate  School  system  under  the  Provincial  Gov- 
ernment of  Mr.  Mowat  and,  later  on,  the  mutterings  of  the  Manitoba 
School  question  began  to  be  heard.  With  the  rapid  subsidence  of 
sectarian  sentiment,  however,  the  movement  gradually  collapsed  and 


490  QUEBEC  AND  THE  JESUITS  ESTATES  QUESTION 

the  success  of  the  Conservative  party  in  the  Dominion  elections  of 
1891  and  of  the  Liberal  party  in  the  Ontario  elections  of  1890  practi- 
cally killed  the  Equal  Rights  Association.  An  important  result 
remained  in  the  continued  alienation  of  Mr.  McCarthy  from  the 
Conservative  party  in  which  he  had  once  been  so  active  a  leader  and 
prominent  figure. 

To  the  Protestant  sentiment  of  Canada  vengeance  was,  however, 
given  in  a  very  real,  though  very  indirect  form  by  the  fall  of  Mr.  Mer- 
cier  in  December  1891.  This  extraordinary  man  had  spent  his  few 
years  of  political  triumph  revelling  in  every  splendour  and  pleasure 
that  success  could  give.  He  had  visited  Rome,  been  received  with 
open  arms  by  the  Papal  authorities  and  decorated  with  an  Order  of 
Knighthood  and  the  title  of  Count.  He  had  come  back  to  the  Prov- 
ince to  participate  in  public  appearances  in  which  the  popularity  of 
his  reception  was  only  equalled  by  the  many-coloured  magnificence  of 
his  new  uniforms.  He  had  lived  in  a  manner  which  indicated  the 
possession  of  present,  or  potential,  millions.  Then  came  whispers  of 
political  corruption  ;  of  a  "toll  "  taken  by  his  Government  upon  finan- 
cial transactions.  Finally,  the  Bale  des  Chaleurs  Railway  scandal  was 
laid  bare,  proof  was  produced  that  his  Government,  or  himself,  had 
received  $100,000  for  the  letting  of  the  contract,  and  a  Royal  Commis- 
sion by  majority  report  declared  him  guilty  of  corruption  on  this  and 
other  points.  Lieutenant-Governor  A.  R.  Angers  promptly  dismissed 
him  from  office.  De  Boucherville  became  Premier  and,  in  the  elections 
which  followed,  swept  the  Province  once  more  for  the  Conservative 
party.  All  Mercier's  undoubted  eloquence  and  personal  popularity 
failed  to  affect  the  verdict,  to  retain  himself  in  the  actual  lead  of  his 
party,  or  to  re-habilitate  his  personal  reputation.  A  few  years  later 
this  most  brilliant  and,  in  many  ways,  likeable  man  died  in  poverty 
and  practical  retirement. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

Trade  and  Tariffs  and  Unrestricted  Reciprocity 

DURING  the  years  immediately  following  the  adoption  of  the 
National  Policy  by  Parliament  in  1879  there  could  be  little 
doubt  as  to  popular  approval  of  the  tariff  while  the  elections 
of  1882  and  1887 — though  in  the  latter  case  other  issues  arose — 
seemed  to  still  further  stamp  its  strength  upon  the  public  mind. 
Trade  had  expanded  immensely,  then  shrunk  a  little,  then  grown 
again  until  in  1891  it  was  $218,000,000.  Railways  had  increased  in 
mileage  from  six  to  thirteen  thousand,  and  in  traffic  from  eight  to 
twenty-one  million  tons.  Business  failures  had  decreased  by  one- 
half,  or  over  fourteen  millions  of  dollars,  while  deposits  in  the  char- 
tered and  savings  banks  had  risen  from  $78,000,000  to  $192,000,000 
and  the  revenue  had  increased  sixteen  millions  in  amount.  The 
tariff  a;veraged,  meanwhile,  thirty-five  per  cent.,  or  about  half  that  of 
the  American  Republic.  There  could  be  no  doubt,  also,  of  the 
increase  in  many  lines  of  industry  and  the  steady  growth  of  factories 
and  accumulation  of  savings  amongst  the  poorer   classes. 

POSITION    OF    THE    PARTIES 

But  all  was  not  quite  as  it  should  be  and  there  were,  naturally, 
shadows  thrown  even  by  the  sunshine  of  success.  To  the  Opposition, 
standing  out  in  the  cold  during  year  after  year  and  through  election 
after  election,  these  shadows  darkened  until  they  covered  the  sun  and 
the  skies  and  made  the  Liberal  party  feel  that  some  very  severe  mea- 
sures were  required  to  cauterize  the  growing  ills  of  the  fiscal,  political 
and  social  system.  There  were  certainly  some  just  grounds  for  pessi- 
mism on  the  part  of  the  Opposition  just  as  there  were  excellent  reasons 

491 


492  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

for  confidence  and  optimism  in  the  mind  of  the  Government  party. 
The  exodus  of  Canadians  to  the  United  States  had  continued  and 
come  in  the  course  of  years  to  number  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
enterprising  and  energetic  young  men. 

The  population  of  the  country  had  not  increased  very  rapidly 
— only  some  500,000  in  the  years  between  1881  and  1891.  The  public 
debt  had  grown  largely  under  the  policy  of  heavy  expenditure  made 
necessary  by  the  building  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  and  the 
deepening  of  the  canals.  The  farmers  were  suffering  greatly  from 
the  effect  of  the  McKinley  tariff  legislation  of  1890  and  at  least  one 
important  agricultural  industry — the  production  of  barley — had  been 
practically  ruined.  The  reciprocity  in  tariffs  which  Sir  John  Mac- 
donald  had  promised  in  1878  would  compel  reciprocity  in  trade  had 
not  yet  succeeded  in  that  aim  and  the  farmers  were  said  to  be  pining 
for  the  great  American  market  of  60,000,000.  The  times  were  not  as 
good  as  they  had  been  and  the  shadow  of  the  coming  financial  crisis 
of  1893  was,  perhaps  unconsciously,  being  felt  by  people  in  Canada  as 
well  as  elsewhere.  Corruption  was  alleged  to  be  rampant ;  monopoly 
was  said  to  be  triumphant  in  the  persons  of  the  protected  manufactur- 
ers ;  and  the  net  effect  of  the  tariff  was  declared  to  be  a  robbery  of 
the  consumers  and  the  country. 

To  this  extreme  view  Conservatives  opposed  the  fact  of  the  dis- 
tinct progress  visible  in  Canada  as  a  whole,  the  redundancy  of 
revenue,  the  policy  of  railway  expansion,  the  expenditure  of  $125,- 
000,000  upon  necessary  public  works  in  a  dozen  years  of  power,  the 
increased  industrial  employ  of  labour,  the  protection  of  the  home 
market  for  the  home  producer,  the  rise  in  national  credit,  the  enhanced 
prestige  of  Canada  abroad,  the  development  of  Manitoba  and  the  North- 
West.  Meanwhile,  in  the  years  between  1878  and  1891,  the  Liberal 
policy  had  not  been  stationary.  Its  mutations  in  fact  had  been  many. 
During  the  time  of  the  Mackenzie  regime  the  Premier  and  Sir  Richard 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY         493 

Cartwright  had  maintained  a  policy  of  tariff  for  revenue  only.  Dur- 
ing the  years  which  followed  1878  the  latter  had  stood  by  these  politi- 
cal guns  and  had  shotted  them  with  the  hottest  of  invective  against  all 
forms  of  protection  and,  especially,  against  manufacturers  clamouring 
for  fiscal  aid  as  being  little  less  than  "thieves  and  robbers."  In 
1876,  Laurier,  Charlton,  Joly,  Paterson  and  other  future  Liberal 
leaders  appear  from  their  speeches  to  have  been  inclined  toward 
moderate  protective  duties.  But  they  stood  by  their  party  for  the 
time  and  nothing  came  of  the  not  very  vigorously  expressed  opinions 
in  this  direction. 

CHANGES    IN    LIBERAL    TARIFF    POLICY 

In  1882  Mr.  Edward  Blake,  then  Leader  of  the  Opposition, 
declared  himself  as  still  opposed  in  principle  to  protection  but  as 
recognizing  that  "we  are  obliged  to  raise  yearly  a  great  sum  mainly 
by  import  duties  laid  to  a  great  extent  on  goods  similar  to  those 
which  can  be  manufactured  here :  and  it  results  as  a  necessary  inci- 
dent of  our  settled  fiscal  system  that  there  must  be  a  large  and,  as  I 
believe,  in  the  view  of  moderate  protectionists,  an  ample  advantage 
to  the  home  manufacturer."  * 

Sir  Richard  Cartwright  and  other  leaders,  however,  continued  to 
denounce  protection  and  neither  the  manufacturers  nor  the  public 
seemed  to  -think  Mr.  Blake's  position  strong  enough,  or  his  views 
clear  enough,  to  warrant  confidence  in  the  existing  fiscal  policy  being 
reasonably  conserved  under  his  auspices.  In  1887,  therefore,  he 
determined  to  make  the  situation  better  for  himself  and  his  party  by 
a  practical  declaration  that  the  National  Policy  would  be  maintained 
if  they  were  returned  to  power.  At  Malvern,  on  January  2 2d,  in  a 
speech  which  formed  the  keynote  of  the  ensuing  campaign,  he 
explained  that  his  opinions  of  1882  had  grown  in  force  with  every 
passing  year  and  that  the  additions  to  the  public  debt,  the  increase  in 


*  Address  to  the  Electors  of  West  Durham,  dated  May  22,  1882 


494  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

the  annual  charges,  the  deficits  between  revenue  and  expenditure 
had  made  even  the  moderate  re-adjustment  of  the  tariff  which  he 
had  then  proposed  impracticable.  "  It  is  clearer  than  ever  that  a 
very  high  scale  of  taxation  must  be  retained  and  that  manufacturers 
have  nothing  to  fear."  And  then  he  proclaimed  his  programme  to 
be  a  fiscal  re-adjustment  which  should  be  directed  "  to  such  reductions 
of  expenditure  as  may  allow  a  reduction  of  taxation  ;  to  the  lighten- 
ing of  taxes  upon  the  prime  necessaries  of  life  and  upon  the  raw 
material  of  manufactures  ;  to  a  more  equitable  arrangement  of  the 
taxes  which  now  bear  unfairly  upon  the  poor  as  compared  with  the 
rich ;  to  a  taxation  of  luxuries  just  so  high  as  will  not  thwart  our 
object  by  greatly  checking  consumption  ;  to  the  curbing  of  monopo- 
lies of  production  in  cases  when,  by  combination  or  otherwise,  the 
tariff  allows  an  undue  or  exorbitant  profit  to  be  exacted  from  the  con- 
sumers ;  to  the  effort — a  most  important  point — to  promote  reciprocal 
trade  with  our  neiofhbours  to  the  south." 

Still,  the  electorate  remained  obdurate.  The  people  did  not 
care,  apparently,  to  entrust  the  administration  of  a  protective  tariff  to 
leaders  who  had  always  been  bitterly  opposed  to  the  principle — even 
though  they  now  acknowledged  a  change  of  conditions  and  a  modifi- 
cation of  policy.  The  second  failure,  however,  to  carry  the  country, 
bitterly  disappointed  the  Opposition.  They  had  fully  expected  to 
capture  the  people  upon  the  combined  issue  of  Kiel's  execution — in 
Quebec — and  an  acceptance  of  the  moderate  protective  policy — in 
Ontario.  Fate  had  decreed  now  otherwise,  and  in  the  autumn 
of  1887,  after  Mr.  Blake  had  disappeared  from  the  leadership  and  Mr. 
Laurier  had  done  a  little  coquetting  with  the  new  Imperial  prefer- 
ential idea  at  Somerset,  Quebec,  Sir  Richard  Cartwright  declared 
boldly  in  a  speech  at  Ingersoll,  on  October  17th,  for  a  clear-cut  policy 
of  reciprocity  with  the  United  States  in  agricultural  and  industrial 
products.     Free  trade  with  the  American  Republic  was  to  be  the  new 


PARLIAMENT  BUILDINGS.  TORONTO 


UNIVERSITY  OF   TRINITY  COLLEGE,  TORONTO 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY         497 

policy,  the  path  to  power,  the  road  to  a  great  60,000,000  market,  the 
way  to  wealth  for  the  farmer,  the  miner  and  the  fisherman. 

It  was  a  courageous  programme,  proposed  by  a  man  who  never 
lacked  courage  during  a  long  political  career,  or  words  of  biting  force 
and  sarcasm  with  which  to  express  his  meaning.  He  once  more  threw 
down  the  gauntlet  to  the  protectionist.  He  proclaimed,  and  very 
truly,  the  impossibility  of  obtaining  a  limited  reciprocity  in  agricul- 
tural products  only.  He  declared  his  willingness,  if  it  should  be 
necessary,  to  discriminate  against  Great  Britain  in  favour  of  American 
products.  He  described  the  American  market  as  the  one  thing  need- 
ful to  produce  general  Canadian  prosperity  and  unlimited  expansion 
in  trade  and  production.  The  policy  was  not  altogether  a  new  one, 
although  the  title  "  Unrestricted  Reciprocity"  was  certainly  original. 
Away  back  in  1870,  on  March  i6th,  Mr.  L.  S.  Huntington,  of  subse- 
quent Canadian  Pacific  contract  fame,  had  moved  a  Resolution  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  favour  of  a  Continental  trade  system  and  cus- 
toms union.  Parliament  promptly  voted  it  down  and  only  now  and 
then  had  the  idea  since  been  heard  of  in  irresponsible  quarters  in  Can- 
ada and  the  United  States.  Reciprocity,  itself,  was  frequently  advo- 
cated and  promised,  but  speakers  and  writers  were  alike  careful  to 
limit  and  restrict  it  to  agricultural  products  and  those  of  the  mine  and 
the  sea.  In  1885,  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  L.  H.  Davies  had,  indeed, 
moved  for  "additional  reciprocal  freedom  in  the  trade  relations  of  the 
two  countries,"  but  the  phrase  was  a  sufficiently  vague  one  to  mean 
anything. 

THE    UNRESTRICTED    RECIPROCITY    MOVEMENT 

Now  the  plunge  had  been  taken  and  a  few  days  later  rapid 
endorsement  came  in  an  unanimous  Resolution  of  approval  passed  by 
the  Inter-Provincial  Conference  which  met  at  Quebec  during  the  same 
month  and  year  in  which  Sir  Richard  Cartwright  made  his  speech  at 
Ingersoll.     It   was   attended   by   the    Liberal   Premiers  of  Quebec, 


498  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

Ontario,  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia — Messrs.  Mercier,  Mowat, 
Blair  and  Fielding ;  by  Mr.  John  Norquay,  Premier  of  Manitoba — 
whose  Dominion  political  opinions  were  vague,  if  not  entirely  absent ; 
by  other  representatives  of  these  Governments  including  the  Hon. 
A.  S.  Hardy,  the  Hon.  G.  W.  Ross,  the  Hon.  F.  G.  Marchand  and 
the  Hon.  J.  W.  Longley.  The  Conference  passed  various  legitimate 
motions  calculated  to  embarrass  the  Federal  Government  and  amongst 
other  things  declared  its  desire  to  record  "  the  opinion  that  Unre- 
stricted Reciprocity  would  be  of  advantage  to  all  the  Provinces  of 
the  Dominion  "  and  its  belief  that  such  a  policy  would  improve  rela- 
tions with  the  United  States  without  affecting  Canadian  loyalty 
towards  British  connection.  This  shows  a  pretty  rapid  acceptance  of 
the  new  policy. 

Strong  help  came,  also,  in  the  way  of  speeches  and  pamphlets 
and  articles  in  newspapers  from  Dr.  Goldwin  Smith,  Mr.  Erastus 
Wiman,  Mr.  Valancy  E.  Fuller  and  Mr.  J.  W.  Longley,  of  Nova 
Scotia.  It  is  questionable  how  far  Dr.  Goldwin  Smith  was  really 
serviceable  to  the  movement.  His  reputation  for  holding  annexation- 
ist sentiments  was  a  pronounced  one  and  he  did  not  now  hesitate 
to  declare  publicly  that  Unrestricted  Reciprocity  meant  the  acceptance 
of  the  American  tariff  against  the  world — including  the  British  Empire 
— and  that  it  was  really  synonymous  with  the  Commercial  Union 
which  was  being  advocated  in  the  United  States.  Mr.  Wiman  was  a 
better  and  more  useful  supporter.  He  was  at  this  time  an  eminently 
successful  business  man  in  New  York,  apparently  proud  of  his  birth- 
right as  a  Canadian,  kind  and  helpful  to  everyone  from  his  native 
land,  in  control  of  one  of  the  great  telegraph  lines  of  the  Dominion 
and  very  ambitious  to  be  a  successful  public  leader.  During  the  next 
four  years  Sir  R.  Cartwright,  Mr.  Longley,  Liberal  Attorney-General 
of  Nova  Scotia,  Mr.  Wiman  and  Dr.  Goldwin  Smith  fought  vigor- 
ously and  spoke  frequently  for  the  new  policy.     They  had,  also,  for 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY        499 

some  time  and  through  the  ensuing  elections,  the  powerful  aid  of  the 
Toronto  Mail — which  had  been  steadily  drawing  away  from  Sir  John 
Macdonald  ever  since  the  days  of  the  Jesuits  Estates  agitation 
and  did  not  return  to  its  Conservative  allegiance  for  several  years 
after  this  time. 

Gradually,  the  Liberal  party  svvrung  into  line  behind  its  leaders  in 
support  of  freer  trade  "with  the  continent  to  which  we  belong"  as 
Mr.  Wiman  unfortunately  phrased  it.  The  support  was  given  in 
varying  degrees  and  under  differing  names  for  the  policy  itself  while 
the  attacks  upon  protection  developed  renewed  strength  and  were 
used  as  collateral  to  an  aggressive  campaign  in  favour  of  the  Ameri- 
can trade  idea.  Sir  Richard  Cartwright,  on  March  14,  1888,  moved 
in  the  House  of  Commons  the  followinor  Resolution  : 

"That  it  is  highly  desirable  that  the  largest  possible  freedom  of  commercial  inter- 
course should  obtain  between  the  Dominion  of  Canada  and  the  United  States  and  that 
it  is  expedient  that  all  articles  manufactured  in,  or  the  natural  products  of,  either  of  the 
said  countries,  should  be  admitted  free  of  duty  into  the  ports  of  the  other — articles 
subject  to  duties  of  excise  or  of  internal  revenue  alone  excepted.  That  it  is  further 
expedient  that  the  Government  of  the  Dominion  should  take  steps  at  an  early  date  to 
ascertain  on  what  terms  and  conditions  arrangements  can  be  effected  with  the  United 
States  for  the  purpose  of  securing  full  and  unrestricted  reciprocity  of  trade  therewith.  " 

This  explicitly  defined  the  new  stand  of  the  Opposition  and  pre- 
cipitated an  issue  which  the  Government  met  with  an  amendment 
proposed  by  Mr.  George  E.  Foster,  Minister  of  Finance,  and  couched 
in  equally  clear  and  explicit  terms  :  "  That  Canada  in  the  future,  as 
in  the  past,  is  desirous  of  cultivating  and  extending  trade  relations 
with  the  United  States  so  far  as  they  may  not  conflict  with  the  policy 
of  fostering  the  various  industries  and  interests  of  the  Dominion 
which  was  adopted  in  1879  ^"^  which  has  since  received,  in  so  marked 
a  manner,  the  sanction  and  approval  of  the  people."  The  amendment 
was  duly  carried,  after  prolonged  discussion,  and  upon  a  party  division 


500  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

of  124  to  67.  Later  in  the  Session  a  similar  Resolution  to  that  of 
Sir  Richard  was  moved  by  Mr.  A.  G.  Jones — afterwards  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Nova  Scotia — and  defeated;  while  in  the  succeeding 
year,  on  March  5th,  Sir  Richard  Cartwright  took  advantage  of  favour- 
able Commercial  Union  motions  having  passed  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives at  Washington  to  again  urge  that  steps  be  taken  "  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  full  and  unrestricted  reciprocity  of  trade"  with 
the  Republic. 

Meanwhile,  recognizing  clearly,  though  not  publicly,  the  difficulty 
of  negotiating  trade  treaties,  or  making  any  commercial  arrange- 
ment with  the  United  States  which  would  involve  a  preference 
against  Great  Britain  through  British  plenipotentiaries,  the  Liberal 
leaders  were  urging  and  advocating  the  Colonial  right  to  negotiate  inde- 
pendently of  Imperial  authorities.  On  February  18,  1889,  Sir  Richard 
Cartwright  embodied  this  collateral  policy,  or  branch  of  the  general 
party  policy,  in  a  motion  which  he  presented  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons and  which  declared  that  "  the  Government  and  Parliament  of 
Canada  should  acquire  the  power  of  negotiating  commercial  treaties 
with  foreign  States"  and  should  be  enabled,  by  Imperial  permission, 
"  to  enter  into  direct  communication  with  any  foreign  State  for  the 
purpose  of  negotiating  commercial  arrangements.." 

Such  was  the  general  issue  before  the  people  when  the  elections  of 
1 89 1  were  fought.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  Government,  in  the  years 
between  1887  and  1891,  under-estimated  the  progress  of  this  move- 
ment and  the  growing  strength  of  a  free  trade  feeling  in  the  country 
which  had  been  fostered  by  the  growth  of  commercial  depression,  by 
the  continuous  propaganda  of  the  now  active  and  fighting  Opposi- 
tion, and  by  a  strong  belief  amongst  the  farmers  that  protection  had 
not  been  as  beneficial  to  them  as  it  should  have  been  and  that  they 
might,  perhaps,  be  helped  by  trying  the  new  policy.  Sir  John  Mac- 
donald  saw  clearly  enough  the  American  tendencies  of  the  movement 


I 


TRADE  AND   TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY         501 

and  the  inevitable  toboggan  slide  towards  annexation  and  away  from 
Britain  which  would  be  created  by  any  system  of  Continental  com- 
mercial union  ;  and  he  appears  at  first  tc  nave  thought  that  the  mass 
of  the  people  could  see  them  as  clearly  as  he  did.  Fortunately,  a  num- 
ber of  men  unconnected  with,  or  indifferent  to  party  affiliations  recog- 
nized the  danger  of  allowing  things  to  drift  and  the  history  of  the 
Imperial  Federation  League  in  Canada  during  these  years  is  an  active 
record  of  strong,  steady  opposition,  in  a  stream  of  pamphlet  and  leaf- 
let literature  and  by  a  continuous  succession  of  public  meetings,  to 
anything  savouring  of  anti-British  fiscal  legislation.  The  League  and 
its  leaders  did  more  than  this.  They  provided  an  alternative  policy, 
a  better  principle,  and  urged  strenuously  the  new  idea  of  a  closer 
commercial  relationship  with  the  Mother-land. 

THE    ELECTIONS    OF    1 89 1 

The  situation,  however,  was  a  sufficiently  serious  one  when  Sir 
John  Macdonald,  early  in  1891,  decided  to  appeal  to  the  country. 
He  had  been  roused  to  the  necessi' v  of  doing  something  in  the  pre- 
ceding year  and  no  occurrence  in  his  career  better  illustrates  the 
natural  tact  and  ^o\\Xaz2\  finesse  of  the  veteran  leader  than  the  nego- 
tiations into  which  he  had  entered,  in  December  1890,  with  the  Uni- 
ted States.  There  is  little  reason  to  suppose  that  he  really  expected 
success  at  a  time  when  the  Canadian  Opposition  was  announcing  its 
willingness  to  go  much  further  in  trade  concessions  than  he  would,  or 
could,  dream  of  doing  and  when  the  United  States  leaders  were 
pretty  well  known  to  be  in  favour  of  a  complete  commercial  union 
between  the  two  countries  while  opposed — as  they  had  been  since 
1866 — to  any  ordinary  modification,  or  renewal,  of  the  old  Reciprocity 
Treaty.  However,  it  was  an  exceedingly  clever  political  stroke  which 
followed  the  announcement  of  the  dissolution  of  Parliament,  on  Feb- 
ruary 3,  1 89 1,  with  the  publication  of  a  despatch  sent  by  the  Gov- 
ernor-General to  the  Colonial  Secretary  on  the  preceding  13th  of 
27 


502  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

December  and  which  outHned  the  terms  of  certain  negotiations  into 
which  his  Ministers  desired  to  enter  with  the  American  Government. 
It  was  proposed  that  a  joint  Commission,  similar  to  that  of  1871, 
should  be  formed  with  power  to  deal  with  the  following  questions : 

1.  Renewal  of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  of  1854-66  with  neces- 
sary modifications. 

2.  Re-consideration  of  the  Fishery  Treaty  of  1888,  which 
had  been  rejected  by  the  United  States  Senate,  with  a  view  to  reci- 
procity in  fish  and  in  the  privileges  of  buying  bait,  trans-shipment  of 
fish,  etc 

3.  Protection  of  mackerel  and  other  fisheries  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  and  in  the  inland  waters  of  the  country. 

4.  Relaxation  of  the  sea-board  coasting  laws  of  the  Dominion 
and  the  Republic  and  also  of  those  in  force  on  the  Great  Lakes. 

5.  Mutual  salvage  and  saving  of  wrecked  vessels. 

6.  Arrangements  for  settling  the  boundary  between  Alaska  and 
Canada. 

The  indignation  of  the  Opposition  at  this  announcement  showed 
its  importance.  Everything  that  could  be  done  to  minimize  its  value 
was  done,  however,  even  to  the  publication  of  a  letter  signed  by  Mr. 
James  G.  Blaine,  the  United  States  Secretary  of  State,  declaring  that 
only  the  very  widest  form  of  Reciprocity — the  Opposition  policy  in 
fact — would  be  considered  by  the  American  Government.  To  some 
extent  the  effort  was  successful  and,  seeing  that  it  was  necessary  to 
stimulate  the  sentiment  of  his  own  party  and  to  rally  around  him  an 
element  which  had  become  dissatisfied  with  the  Liberal  policy  and  its 
tendencies.  Sir  John  Macdonald,  for  the  first  and  last  time  in  his 
career,  issued  a  political  Manifesto.  It  was  published  on  February  8th 
and  contained  the  most  stirring  appeal  to  British  sentiment  and  Cana- 
dian loyalty  which  has  been  addressed,  since  the  days  of  Brock,  to  the 
people  of  British  America. 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 


503 


He  declared  the  policy  of  the  Conservative  party  to  be  one  of 
fostering  the  resources  of  Canada  by  every  possible  means  consistent 
with  its  position  "  as  an  integral  portion  of  the  British  Empire."  He 
denounced  the  Opposition  policy  of  free  trade  with  the  United  States 
as  involving  "  among  other  grave  evils,  discrimination  against  the 
Mother-country  ;  "  and  expressed  his  earnest  belief  that  it  would  in 
that  event  "inevitably  result  in  annexation  to  the  United  States." 
He  gave  strong  reasons  for  believing  that  the  loss  of  revenue  from 
American  goods  under  such  a  policy  would  involve  direct  taxation  of 
the  people  to  the  figure  of  at  least  $7,000,000.  He  declared  that  in 
consequence  of  the  Canadian  tariff  against  other  countries  having  to 
be  the  same  as  that  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  prevent  the 
wholesale  importation  of  goods  by  way  of  Canada  under  its  existent 
lower  grade  of  duties,  the  proposed  policy  meant  the  practical  con- 
trol of  the  Canadian  tariff  at  Washington.  He  appealed  in  ringing 
words  to  the  loyalty  of  the  people  to  past  affiliations  and  traditions,  to 
British  institutions  and  ideals,  to  their  affection  for  the  throne  and  the 
flag  of  Empire  and  liberty.  He  concluded  an  Address  which  deserves 
a  high  place  for  its  literary  excellence,  as  well  as  for  its  historical  signi- 
ficance, with  a  paragraph  marked  by  pathos  as  well  as  patriotism  : 

•*  A  British  subject  I  was  born — a  British  subject  I  will  die.  With  my  utmost 
strength,  with  my  latest  breath,  will  I  oppose  the  '  veiled  treason  '  which  attempts  by 
sordid  means  and  mercenary  proffers  to  lure  our  people  from  their  allegiance.  During 
my  long  public  service  of  nearly  half-a-century  I  have  been  true  to  my  country  and  its 
best  interests,  and  I  appeal  with  equal  confidence  to  the  men  who  have  trusted  me  in 
the  past  and  to  the  young  hope  of  the  country  with  whom  rest  its  destinies  in  the 
future,  to  give  me  their  united  and  strenuous  aid  in  this  my  last  effort  for  the  unity  of 
the  Empire  and  the  preservation  of  our  commercial  and  political  freedom. ' ' 

The  Manifesto  had  an  instant  effect  upon  the  situation  and  the 
declaration  of  being  born  and  intending  to  die  a  British  subject  rang 
through  the  community  like  a  slogan  of  war.   "  The  old  man,  the  old 


504         TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

flag,  and  the  old  policy  "  became  the  party  war-cry  and  echoed  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  from  the  back-woods  of  Nova  Scotia  to  the 
prairies  of  the  West. 

Mr.  Wilfrid  Laurier,  as  the  leader  of  the  Liberal  party,  although 
.  Sir  R.  Cartwright  had  been  the  leader  in  the  Reciprocity  agita- 
tion from  the  first,  promptly  answered  Sir  John's  Manifesto  with  an 
Address  to  the  people  of  Canada  which  was  issued  on  February  12th. 
In  it  he  denounced  the  premature  dissolution  of  Parliament  as  being 
intended  to  stampede  the  public  into  a  hasty  and  unconsidered  ver- 
dict ;  declared  the  existing  Franchise  Act  a  measure  of  gross  injustice 
and  calculated  insufiiciency  ;  arraigned  the  National  Policy  as'  injuri- 
ous to  the  farmer  and  a  failure  in  stopping  the  migration  of  people  to 
the  States,  or  in  promoting  individual  employment  and  better  wages ; 
proclaimed  his  personal  and  party  loyalty  to  the  Crown  and  to  British 
connection ;  expressed  the  belief  that,  under  the  proposed  reform  of 
"  absolute  reciprocal  freedom  of  trade  between  Canada  and  the  Uni- 
ted States,"  direct  taxation  would  be  unnecessary  and  an  assimilation 
of  tariffs  not  inevitable.  Upon  the  all-important  point  of  discrimina- 
tion against  Great  Britain,  under  free  trade  with  the  United  States, 
and  the  Conservative  statement  that  it  was  involved  by  the  very 
nature  of  things,  he  submitted  a  simple  denial  and  the  following  sig- 
nificant but  vague  statement  : 

"It  cannot  be  expected,  it  were  folly  to  expect,  that  the  interests  of  a  Colony 
should  always  be  identical  with  the  interests  of  the  Mother-land.  The  day  must  come 
when,  from  no  other  cause  than  the  development  of  national  life  in  the  Colony,  there 
must  be  a  clashing  of  interests  with  the  Mother-land  and,  in  any  such  case,  much  as  I 
would  regret  the  necessity,  I  would  stand  by  my  native  land." 

In  the  contest  which  followed  a  keen  and  spirited  interest  was 
taken  by  the  people  and,  as  its  issues  developed  in  Imperial  and  inter- 
national importance,  the  press  of  the  United  Kingdom,  of  the  far- 
away Australasian  Colonies  and   of  the   United   States,  made  it  a 


THE  MARQUESS  OF  LORNE,  K.T.,  G.C.M.G. 

9tH  DUKP:  of  ARGYLL 
CJovernor-General  of  Canada,  1878-83 


H.  R.  H.  THE  PRINCESS  LOUISE 
MARCHIONESS  OK  LORNE 


CHARLES,  LORD  MONCK,  G.C.M.G. 

Governor-General  of  Canada,  1867-68 


THE  RIGHT  HON.  SIR  JOHN  YOUNG 

1st  LORD  LISGAR 

Governor-General  of  Canada,  1868-72 


1 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY         507 

subject  of  critical  comment  and  consideration.  The  result  became 
more  and  more  doubtful  as  the  days  progressed  and  party  calls  from 
all  parts  of  the  Dominion  came  to  Ottawa  for  the  personal  presence 
of  Sir  John  Macdonald.  His  health  was  not  good,  he  had  reached 
an  age  when  some  measure  of  rest  and  relief  from  responsibility  and 
active  campaigning  was  necessary,  and  his  physicians  warned  him  that 
to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  battle  could  only  be  done  at  the  risk 
of  his  life.  But  he  could  not  resist  the  pressure  of  popular  demand  from 
within  his  party,  the  personal  conviction  of  how  much  depended  upon 
the  result,  the  knowledge  that  it  was  now  in  grave  doubt.  He,  there- 
fore, threw  himself  with  intense  vigour  into  the  campaign  and,  from 
his  standpoint,  not  a  moment  too  soon. 

The  elements  favourable  to  the  Liberals  consisted  in  the  senti- 
ment already  worked  up  on  behalf  of  a  wide  reciprocity  with  the 
United  States  ;  the  depression  among  farmers  caused  by  the  McKin- 
ley  Act ;  the  influence  of  Mr.  Laurier's  persuasive  eloquence  and 
pleasing  personality  —  especially  amongst  French-Canadians;  the 
dying,  but  still  influential,  efforts  of  the  Equal  Rights  Association  in 
Ontario ;  the  powerful  work  done  by  Mr.  Mercier,  who  was  still  Premier 
of  Quebec  and  who  postponed  an  intended  visit  to  Europe  in  order  to 
retain  his  place  beside  "my  esteemed  chief,  M.  Wilfrid  Laurier,"  as 
he  declared  at  a  mass  meeting  in  Montreal  on  February  9th ;  the  fact 
of  sundry  electoral  scandals,  implicating  the  Conservative  party,  hav- 
ing been  made  public  during  the  last  Session  of  Parliament ;  the  con- 
stant and  scarifying  criticisms  of  Sir  Richard  Cartwright ;  the  warm 
and  hostile  co-operation  of  nearly  all  the  Provincial  Premiers — includ- 
ing the  pronounced  influence  of  Mr.  Oliver  Mowat  in  Ontario,  of  Mr. 
Mercier  in  Quebec,  of  Mr.  Greenway  in  Manitoba,  of  Mr.  A.  G.  Blair 
of  New  Brunswick  and  of  Mr.  W.  S.  Fielding  in  Nova  Scotia. 

The  elements  favourable  to  the  Conservative  party  were,  first  and 
foremost,  the  magnetic,  popular,  personality  of  their  leader  as  he  once 


5o8  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

more  came  into  close  touch  with  the  people ;  the  splendid  support  of 
Sir  Charles  Tupper,  who  had  been  called  from  England  and  his  work 
as  High  Commissioner  to  help  in  this  vital  contest ;  the  assistance  of 
Sir  John  Thompson,  with  his  deliberate  and  convincing  oratory,  and 
of  Hon.  George  E.  Foster,  with  his  more  effective  and  popular  style; 
the  publication  of  correspondence,  verging  on  treason,  which  had 
passed  between  Mr.  Edward  Farrar,  the  one-time  Editor  of  the  Toronto 
Mail  and  at  this  particular  moment  an  editorial  writer  on  the  Liberal 
organ — The  Toronto  Globe ;  the  support  given  to  the  Opposition  by 
Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  and  the  consequent  increase  of  suspicion  regard- 
ing the  loyalty  of  their  policy ;  the  continued  feeling  of  manufactur- 
ers in  favour  of  protection  and  their  natural  fear  of  Unrestricted 
Reciprocity ;  the  rapidly-growing  expression  of  a  hitherto  dormant 
but  very  real  and  strong  loyalty  to  British  connection  in  all  parties 
and  amongst  all  classes ;  the  activity  of  a  small  band  of  Imperialists 
who  were  straining  every  nerve  to  develop  antagonism  to,  and  fear 
of  the  Continental  trade  idea. 

DEATH    OF    SIR   JOHN    MACDONALD 

The  result  of  the  struggle  was  a  victory  for  the  Conservative 
chieftain  and  his  Government  by  a  majority  of  between  twenty  and 
thirty.  Two  members  of  the  Ministry  were  defeated,  Mr.  C.  C. 
Colby  and  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  John  Carling,  and  two  leaders  of  the 
Opposition,  Mr.  A.  G.  Jones  and  Mr.  Peter  Mitchell.  It  was  Sir 
John  Macdonald's  last  political  success.  Against  the  earnest  advice 
of  his  physicians,  the  veteran  leader,  now  in  his  seventy-seventh  year, 
had  gone  into  the  contest  with  an  energy  which  seemed  marvellous 
in  one  of  his  admittedly  feeble  frame.  He  had  been  everywhere 
urging  on  the  struggle,  putting  life  and  soul  into  his  supporters, 
arousing  the  enthusiasm  of  great  audiences  as  only  his  magnetic  per- 
sonality could  have  done,  soothing  differences  and  smoothing  away 
obstacles  with  his  curious  combination  of  tact  and  personal  charm, 


TRADE  AND   TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY         509 

giving  to  the  campaign,  in  short,  that  swing  of  victory  which  was 
needed  to  overcome  the  many  adverse  circumstances  of  the  moment. 
Without  him  the  party  would  most  certainly  have  been  defeated  and, 
knowing  this,  he  had  fought  one  more  battle  for  what  he  believed  to 
be  the  fundamental  principles  of  Canadian  nationality  and  progress 
— British  connection  and  loyalty  to  the  close  and  honourable  union  of 
the  Dominion  and  Empire. 

His  efforts  in  managing  the  campaign  and  addressing  audiences 
almost  daily  for  weeks — upon  one  occasion  he  spoke  five  times  in  the 
twenty-four  hours — were  too  much  for  his  physical  strength  and  he 
came  back  to  Ottawa  to  die.  At  first  it  was  only  reported  that  he 
needed  rest  and  then,  after  the  meeting  of  Parliament  at  the  end  of 
April,  he  was  said  to  be  unwell.  But  the  serious  attack  did  not  come 
until  the  29th  of  May,  although  there  had  been  premonitions  in  plenty. 
Then,  in  a  moment,  the  paralytic  seizure  came  and  stilled  the  busy 
brain,  numbed  the  marvellous  faculties  and  silenced  forever  the  voice 
which  had  so  long  been  the  voice  of  Canada.  During  the  week  of  anx- 
ious waiting  w^hich  followed  political  lines  were  obliterated  and  the  peo- 
ple of  Canada  stood  beside  that  sick-bed  at  Earnscliffe  where  the  great- 
est of  the  builders  of  the  Empire,  the  wisest  of  Canadian  leaders,  lay 
fighting  a  last  silent  struggle  with  the  most  powerful  of  all  foes.  Par- 
liament had  promptly  adjourned,  the  Queen  sent  daily  cables  of 
inquiry,  the  people  began  to  understand  what  a  great  figure  was  passing 
away,  the  politicians  commenced  to  tremble  for  the  future  of  the  party 
which  he  had  led  and  made  almost  synonymous  with  himself.  On 
June  6th  Sir  John  passed  away  and  the  mourning  which  followed 
throughout  the  Dominion  was  as  remarkable  in  its  intensity  and  per- 
sonal note  of  pain  as  the  scenes  surrounding  the  state  funeral  of  the 
late  Premier  from  Ottawa  to  his  burial  place  at  Kingston  were  notable 
for  their  splendour.  During  immediately  succeeding  years  monuments 
were  erected  to  his  memory  at  Toronto,  Kingston,  Ottawa,  Hamilton 


5IO  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

and  Montreal  but  it  is  historically  safe  to  say  that  his  most  enduring 
memorial  has  since  been  found  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow-countrymen. 

RESULTS    OF    THE    ELECTION 

Politics  were  now  in  a  turmoil.  The  late  leader  had  been  unable 
to  suggest  a  successor  during  his  last  days  but  the  man  who  should, 
properly,  have  followed  him  in  power  was  his  life-long  friend  and  right- 
hand  supporter — Sir  Charles  Tupper.  His  work  for  Confederation, 
his  labours  for  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  construction,  his  battles  for 
the  National  Policy,  his  foremost  place  beside  Sir  John  Macdonald  in 
the  fight  against  Unrestricted  Reciprocity,  all  pointed  him  out  as  the 
legitimate  leader  of  the  party.  But  he  was  away  in  London  again 
acting  as  High  Commissioner  ;  it  was  thought  by  many  that  he  would 
not  care  for  the  position  ;  he  did  not  hold  a  seat  in  Parliament ;  and 
he  made  no  sign  himself  concerning  the  matter.  Hence  different 
wings  of  the  party  nominated  their  favourites.  Principal  Grant  urged 
Sir  Charles  Tupper,  as  did  many  others ;  Mr.  Chapleau  pressed  the 
name,  and  justly  praised  the  ability,  of  Sir  John  Thompson  ;  Le 
Monde  and  other  French  journals  urged  the  prolonged  service  of  Sir 
Hector  Langevin  and  the  fact  of  his  being  the  recognized  leader  of 
the  party  in  Quebec;  there  was  talk  of  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  W.  R. 
Meredith,  who  for  many  years  had  led  the  Conservative  Opposition 
in  the  Provincial  Legislature  of  Ontario ;  there  was  a  presentation  of 
the  claims  of  Mr.  D'  Alton  McCarthy  whose  ability  and  Imperialistic 
views  overshadowed  the  memory  of  his  past  differences  with  the 
party.  Finally,  it  was  announced  that  the  Governor-General  after  a 
conference  with  Sir  John  Thompson  and  the  Hon.  J.  J.  C.  Abbott — 
who  had  been  Conservative  leader  in  the  Senate  and  was  known  as  a 
man  of  wide  constitutional  knowledge  and  keen  executive  ability — had 
asked  the  latter  to  take  the  Premiership. 

His  Government  was  much  the  same  in  composition  as  the  pre- 
ceding one  and  it  had  no  easy  task  before  it.     The  corruptions  and 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY        511 

slanders  inevitably  surrounding  an  Administration  fourteen  years  old 
were  all  met  in  an  avalanche  of  charge  and  denunciation  during  the 
first  Session  of  the  leadership  of  Mr.  (soon  to  be  Sir  John)  Abbott 
in  the  Senate,  and  of  Sir  John  Thompson  in  the  Commons.  Under 
it  Sir  Hector  Langevin  disappeared  from  public  position  ;  Sir  Adolphe 
Caron  had  to  fight  for  his  political  life ;  Mr.  J.  G.  Haggart  had  to 
meet  serious  charges  as  did  Mr.  J.  A.  Chapleau.  It  was  the  most 
arduous  Session  since  Confederation  and  certainly  the  most  unpleas- 
ant. It  revealed  the  existence  of  carelessness  in  some  of  the  Depart- 
ments and  of  considerable  corruption  in  public  life  but  it  did  not 
prove  personal  dishonesty  or  corruption  against  any  of  the  Ministers. 
The  Census  of  the  Dominion  had,  meanwhile,  been  taken  and  had 
shown  an  increase  of  population  from  3,686,000  in  1871  to  4,324,000 
in  1 88 1  and  to  4,829,000  in  1891.  A  re-distribution  of  seats  and 
representation  was,  therefore,  necessary  and  in  April  of  the  succeed- 
ing year  Sir  John  Thompson  introduced  a  measure  to  this  end  which 
finally  passed  after  bitter  Opposition  denunciation  as  being  a  gerry- 
mander and  "  a  plan  for  deliberately  stifling  the  voice  of  the  people." 
Meantime,  the  aftermath  of  the  political  struggle  of  1891  had 
come  in  two  very  important  events.  On  the  day  following  the  gene- 
ral elections  a  long  letter  was  published  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Edward 
Blake  as  addressed  to  his  constituents  in  West  Durham  some  time 
before  election  day.  It  explained  minutely,  though  not  always 
clearly,  his  reasons  for  retiring  from  public  life  at  that  juncture  and 
declining  their  re-nomination  for  Parliament.  It  denounced  the 
National  Policy  in  great  detail  and  in  the  severest  terms  and  painted 
so  dark  a  picture  of  the  country,  and  its  present  and  future  position, 
as  to  make  the  document  a  veritable  triumph  of  pessimism  in  thought 
and  language.  Then  the  writer  turned  to  the  subject  of  Unrestricted 
Reciprocity  and  declared  that  it  would  give  the  country  the  blessings 
of  a  measure  of  free  trade  greater  than  was  otherwise  attainable ; 


512  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

would  advance  the  Dominion's  most  material  interests  and  its  most 
natural  and  largest  industries  ;  would  create  an  influx  of  capital  and 
population  and,  in  a  word,  give  to  the  country  its  chiefest  needs — 
men,  money  and  markets. 

But  it  would,  also,  he  declared,  involve  differential  duties  against 
the  United  Kingdom  and  the  rest  of  the  world  ;  it  would  cause  great 
gaps  in  the  revenue  and  leave  the  country  with  an  immense  deficit 
which  could  only  be  met  by  direct  taxes — and  these  he  believed  to  be 
impossible  under  existing  conditions  of  popular  opinion  ;  it  would 
require  "  as  to  the  bulk  by  agreement  and  as  to  much,  from  the 
necessity  of  the  case,  the  substantial  assimilation  in  their  leading  fea- 
tures, of  the  tariffs"  of  Canada  and  the  United  States  ;  it  must  of 
necessity  be  a  permanent  arrangement  in  order  to  conserve  financial 
credit  and  industrial  interests  and  this  was  impossible  without  a 
control  of  the  Canadian  tariff  by  the  American  Congress — in  which  the 
Dominion  "  would  have  much  less  influence  in  procuring  or  prevent- 
ing changes  than  she  would  enjoy  did  she  compose  several  States  of 
the  Union."  He  concluded  an  elaborate,  able  and  in  parts  logical 
presentation  of  the  whole  political  issue  in  the  late  campaign  with  the 
following  words  : 

"The  tendency  in  Canada  of  unrestricted  free  trade  with  the  States,  high  duties 
being  maintained  against  the  United  Kingdom,  would  be  towards  political  union  ;  and 
the  more  successful  the  plan  the  stronger  the  tendency,  both  by  reason  of  the  commu- 
nity of  interests,  the  interminghng  of  populations,  the  more  intimate  business  and  social 
connections,  and  the  trade  and  fiscal  relations  amounting  to  dependency  which  it  would 
create  with  the  States  ;  and  of  the  greater  isolation  and  divergency  from  Britain  which 
it  would  produce  ;  and  also,  and  especially,  through  inconvenience  experienced  in  the 
maintenance  and  apprehensions  entertained  as  to  the  termination,  of  the  Treaty. ' ' 

This  deliverance  came  like  a  thunderbolt  upon  the  Liberal  party. 
Had  it  been  published  when  written,  and  before  election  day,  Sir  John 
Macdonald  would,  probably,  have  had  the  largest  majority  in  Canadian 
history.    As  it  was,  this  presentation  of  the  real  issue  in  its  naked  shape 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND   UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY         513 

shocked  the  inherent  loyalty  of  Canadian  Liberalism  and  opened  the 
eyes  of  many  an  honest  and  honourable  advocate  of  the  policy  which 
Sir  John  had  so  strenuously  denounced  in  words  deemed  by  his  oppo- 
nents to  be  the  mere  echo  of  partisan  thoughts  and  fears.  The  prac- 
tical result  was  seen  in  the  bye-elections  which  followed  in  1892,  from 
the  unseating-  of  a  number  of  members,  and  in  which  the  Conserva- 
tives swept  everything  before  them  with  swinging  majorities. 

During  this  period  a  further  and  final  incident  in  the  history  of 
this  trade  and  fiscal  movement  took  place.  In  pursuance  of  their 
pledges  to  the  people  at  the  elections  the  Canadian  Government 
arranged,  after  many  delays  on  the  part  of  American  authorities,  for 
a  Conference  to  discuss  international  relations.  Messrs.  James  G. 
Blaine  and  J.  W.  Foster  represented  the  United  States  and  Mr. 
Mackenzie  Bowell,  Sir  John  Thompson  and  Mr.  G.  E.  Foster,  the 
Dominion.  After  a  prolonged  discussion — February  1892 — upon 
trade  and  reciprocity  matters  it  was  found  impossible  to  come  to  any 
understanding.  Mr.  Blaine  insisted  absolutely  upon  the  free  admis- 
sion into  Canada  of  American  manufactures  and  declared  that  an 
arrangement  could  only  be  consummated  "  by  making  the  tariff  uni- 
form for  both  countries  and  equalizing  the  Canadian  tariff  (against 
Great  Britain,  &c.)  with  that  of  the  United  States."  The  statements 
of  the  American  negotiators  were  most  explicit  and  are  recorded  in 
an  official  document  *  signed  by  the  Canadian  negotiators  and 
endorsed  by  Sir  Julian  Pauncefote,  the  British  Ambassador  at  Wash- 
ington, in  the  words  :  "  I  concur  in  the  above  Minute  of  Proceedings." 

This  was  the  end  of  the  Unrestricted  Reciprocity,  or  Commer- 
cial Union  movement.  The  Liberal  leaders  turned  to  the  safer  paths 
of  simple  tariff  denunciation  and  the  advocacy  of  a  generally  freer 
trade.  These  were  embodied  in  a  Resolution  presented  to  the  Com- 
mons by  Sir  Richard  Cartwright  on   February  16,  1893.      During  the 

*  Canadian  Sessional  Papers,  Volume  26th,  Number  52,  1892. 


514  TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY 

succeeding  year,  on  March  28th,  the  same  leader  once  more  presented 
a  motion  which,  nominally,  constituted  the  Liberal  fiscal  platform  in 
the  elections  of  1896  :  "  That  the  highest  interests  of  Canada  demand 
the  adoption  of  a  sound  fiscal  policy  which,  while  not  doing  injustice 
to  any  class  will  promote  domestic  and  foreign  trade  and  hasten  the 
return  of  prosperity  to  our  people  ;  that,  to  that  end  the  tariff  should 
be  reduced  to  the  needs  of  honest,  economical  and  efficient  government, 
should  have  eliminated  from  it  the  principle  of  protection  to  particular 
industries  at  the  expense  of  the  community  at  large,  and  snould  be 
imposed  for  revenue  only ;  that  it  should  be  so  adjusted  as  to  make 
free,,  or  bear  as  lightly  as  possible  upon,  the  necessaries  of  life  and  to 
promote  freer  trade  with  the  whole  world — particularly  with  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States."  The  motions  were,  of  course,  defeated 
by  party  divisions  but  they  clearly  indicated  the  gradually-changing 
lines  of  policy. 

On  June  20,  1893,  a  Convention  of  Liberals  had  been  held  at 
Ottawa  to  define  the  position  of  the  party  and  it  had  taken  lines  simi- 
lar to  those  embodied  in  the  above  motion.  The  Resolutions  passed 
declared  that  the  tariff  of  the  Dominion  "  should  be  based,  not  as  it 
is  now,  upon  the  protective  principle,  but  upon  the  requirements  of 
the  public  service ; "  denounced  the  National  Policy  as  having  devel- 
oped monopolies,  trusts  and  combinations,  decreased  the  value  of 
farm  lands,  oppressed  the  masses  in  favour  of  the  few,  checked  immi- 
gration, driven  people  out  of  the  country  and  impeded  commerce ; 
proclaimed  protection  to  be  "  radically  unsound  and  unjust  to  the 
masses  of  the  people  ; "  declared  the  necessity  of  tariff  changes  which 
should  afford  "substantial  relief  from  the  burdens  under  which  the 
country  labours."  References  were  also  made  to  the  desirability  of 
Reciprocity,  the  success  of  the  old-time  Treaty  of  1864;  and  the  belief 
of  the  party  that  a  fair  measure  might  still  be  obtained  which  should 
include  "a  well-considered  list   of   manufactured  articles."     During 


THE  EARL  OF  ABERDEEN 
G.C.M.G.,  LL.D.,  D.C.L. 

Governor-General  of  Canada,  1883-8t 


HIS  EXCELLENCY,  THE  EARL  OF  MINTO 

G.C.M.G. 

Governor-General  of  Canada  in  1900 


THE  MARQUESS  OF  LANSDOWNE,  G.C.M.G. 
Governor-General  of  Canada,  1883-88 


LORD  STANLEY  OF   PRESTON,  G.C.B. 

16th  earl  of  derby 

Governor-General  of  Canada,  1888-93 


TRADE  AND  TARIFFS  AND  UNRESTRICTED  RECIPROCITY  517 

the  next  three  years,  however,  Reciprocity  dropped  largely  out  of 
Liberal  advocacy  and  in  the  elections  of  1896,  though  the  quotations 
given  constituted  the  nominal  policy  of  the  Opposition,  still  less  was 
heard  of  it  and  nothing  at  all  of  the  unrestricted  variety.  Other 
issues  had  come  up  and  upon  them  the  battle  was  fought  and,  this 
time  won  by  Liberalism  and  Laurier. 

In  the  succeeding  four  years  of  Liberal  rule  Reciprocity  came  to 
the  front  upon  only  one  occasion.  An  effort  was  made  to  obtain 
some  arrangement  of  this  character  during  the  meetings  of  the  Joint 
High  Commission  which  were  held  in  Quebec  and  Washington  in 
August,  September  and  October  1898.  It  was  a  far-reaching  Con- 
ference, however,  and  other  issues  which  intervened  finally  terminated 
the  proceedings  without  any  definite  decision  being  reached.  So  far 
as  trade  relations  between  Canada  and  the  United  States  were  con- 
cerned it  was  found  by  the  Government  of  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier,  as  it 
had  been  by  that  of  Sir  John  Macdonald,  that  Reciprocity  was  not 
obtainable  upon  terms  compatible  with  the  honourable  maintenance  of 
Canada's  place  in  the  British  Empire.  A  Commercial  Union  such  as 
Mr.  Blaine  had  proposed  in  1892,  was  still  possible  so  far  as  the 
Republic  was  concerned,  but  still  impossible  for  any  Canadian  Gov- 
ernment to  consider.  During  1898  a  further  stage  in  the  development 
of  the  Dominion  away  from  the  United  States  and  toward  Great 
Britian  was  marked  by  the  establishment  of  the  Preferential  tariff  by 
which  British  goods  were  allowed  admission  at  a  rate  of  25  percent, 
lower  than  foreign  products.  The  general  elections  which  took  place 
on  November  7th,  1900,  and  resulted  in  the  return  of  the  Laurier  Gov- 
ernment to  power,  were  fought  with  hardly  a  reference  on  either 
side  to  the  once  all-important  Reciprocity  idea  and  with  a  tacit  admis- 
sion on  both  sides  that  a  maintenance  of  the  principle  of  protection 
was  essential  to  the  present  state  of  Canadian  development. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

Manitoba  and  the  School  Question 

THE  story  of  Manitoba's  progress  during  the  years  which  suc- 
ceeded the  Fort  Garry  rising  and  the  admission  of  the  youthful 
Province  into  Confederation  on  July  15th,  1870,  is  an  oft-told' 
tale  to  Canadians.  The  slow  growth,  at  first,  of  the  little  town  at  the 
junction  of  the  Red  River  and  Assiniboine  which  took  the  place 
of  the  Fort  around  which  such  severe  struggles  against  nature,  and 
amongst  men,  had  raged  since  the  days  of  Selkirk  ;  the  coming  of  the 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway  and  the  rapid  rise  of  Winnipeg  into  a  city 
of  40,000  people ;  the  steady  accretion  of  farmers  in  the  vast  and  fer- 
tile prairies  stretching  away  beyond  the  distant  horizon  ;  the  phenome- 
nal "  boom,"  typical  in  its  inception  and  progress  of  all  western 
periods  of  expansion,  which  came  to  Manitoba  in  1879  and  1880,  and 
merged  the  solid  investments  of  thousands  of  Ontario  business  men  in 
fantastic  land  schemes  and  non-existent  prairie  villages  of  which  sur- 
veys had  often  not  been  made  ;  the  reaction  which  followed  and  the 
slow,  but  steady  and  substantial  progress  which,  in  time,  came  to  the 
Province  ;  these  things  are  pretty  well  known  to  the  people  of  to-day. 

NOVEL    CONDITIONS    ON    THE    FRONTIER 

Less  clearly  is  the  political  condition  of  the  country  known,  or  the 
wild  and  free  spirit,  drawn  from  the  experiences  of  a  pioneer  life  which 
had  not  been  brought  into  close  touch  with  civilization,  fully  under- 
stood. The  ox-cart,  even  now,  touches  the  electric  street  car  or  the 
luxurious  coach  of  the  modern  railway.  The  fringed  and  faded  Indian 
rubs  shoulder  with  the  white  farmer  and  the  commercial  traveller  for 

some  Eastern  firm.     The  unsettled  and  nomadic  Half-breed  hunter 
518 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  519 

looks  across  the  table  of  his  hotel  at  the  latest  tourist  from  Piccadilly 
or  habitue  of  Hyde  Park.  The  forts  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company 
still  stand  in  occasional  loneliness,  but  are  more  and  more  coming  into 
contact  with  farm-houses  of  prosperous  settlers,  or  face  to  face  with 
the  growing  villages  of  an  increasing  population.  The  buffalo  has 
gone,  but  his  bones  are  yet  picked  up  on  the  boundless  prairie  and 
sold  by  dirty-looking  squaws  on  the  clean  platforms  of  a  continental 
railway. 

CHANGES    IN    MANITOBA 

The  white  people  of  Manitoba  have  themselves  greatly  changed 
since  the  stormy  days  of  1870.  The  pioneer  life  of  farmers  who 
have  drifted  in  by  tens,  and  hundreds,  and  thousands,  to  till  the  rich 
and  easy  soil  of  the  prairie  has  been  one  of  inevitable  hardship  at 
times,  and  especially  so  in  seasons  of  unseasonable  frost,  or  occasional 
flood,  or  unwelcome  drought.  They  have  encountered  serious  dis- 
couragement from  a  severe  climate,  not  at  first  understood,  and  they 
have  often  suffered  from  intense  solitude  and  hard  labour,  while  dan- 
gers from  cold  and  storm  have  not  been  few.  But  all  these  things 
were  really  nothing  to  the  perils  of  the  French  or  Loyalist 
pioneers  of  Eastern  Canada  from  wild  animals  or  wilder  Indians  ;  and, 
whatever  they  may  have  been,  the  conditions  have  now  been  conquered 
and  out  of  them  has  come  a  people  delighting  in  the  life  of  the  prairie 
and  the  cold  of  its  winters,  loving  the  fresh  and  fragrant  air  of  their 
healthful  Province,  instinct  with  western  vigour  and  progressiveness, 
and  pulsating  with  strong  belief  in  its  future  progress. 

Of  a  kind  with  the  complexities  of  general  development  has  been 
the  political  record  of  Manitoba  and  out  of  it  came  a  problem  which 
was  destined  to  shake  the  parties  and  principles  of  Canadian  public 
life  to  their  very  roots.  For  many  years  the  local  politics  were  of  a 
purely  parish  nature,  and  government  consisted  in  legislating  for 
schools  scattered  over  a  large  area  amongst  isolated  settlers,  providing 


520  MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 

the  beginnings  of  municipal  life,  practising  the  forms  of  constitu- 
tionalism, and  guarding  the  interests  of  the  small  though  growing 
population  of  farmers.  Alfred  Boyd,  M.  A.  Girard,  H.  J.  H.  Glarke, 
R.  A.  Davis  and  John  Norquay  succeeded  each  other  as  Prime  Minis- 
ter. Then  came  the  era  of  railway  construction,  the  boon  proferred 
by  Eastern  Canada  to  its  Provincial  sisters  in  the  West.  With  the 
Canadian  Pacific  came  also  questions  of  monopoly,  of  the  right  to 
control  competitive  lines,  of  the  necessity  of  competition  and  control 
of  rates,  of  the  location  of  branch  lines  and  all  the  complications  inci- 
dent to  a  time  of  public  expansion  and  the  sudden  growth  of  trans- 
portation interests.  These  problems  have  all  been  settled,  or  are 
now  settling  themselves,  in  one  form  or  another.  There  has,  at  times, 
been  friction  between  the  Provincial  Government  and  the  Dominion 
authorities  but  never  violent  trouble  ;  except,  perhaps,  in  the  matter 
of  the  Red  River  Railway. 

Three  or  four  men  have  developed  in  the  public  life  of  the  Prov- 
ince who  may,  in  diverse  ways,  be  described  as  remarkable  characters. 
Archbishop  Tache  was  a  pioneer  of  religious  progress,  a  man  of 
intense  missionary  zeal,  of  strenuous  labour  for  the  cause  of  his 
Church,  of  wide  and  powerful  public  influence.  From  the  day,  in 
1 845,  when  he  started  by  boat,  or  ox-team,  for  the  far-away  banks  of 
the  Red  River,  he  traversed  every  part  of  the  vast  field  of  the  North- 
West  and  in  varied  degrees  of  hardship  and  toil  established  Roman 
Catholicism  as  one  of  the  chief  religious  features  of  the  new  country. 
He  became  a  Bishop  in  1850,  received  the  higher  honour  in  1871,  and 
died  in  1894.  With  the  public  questions  of  the  day  in  the  growing 
Province  he  was  closely  associated,  from  the  share  he  took  as  media- 
tor in  the  Riel  rising  of  1870  and  his  place  in  the  conflict  and  contro- 
versy created  by  the  same  irrepressible  personage  in  1885,  to  the 
forcible  position  assumed  by  him  in  the  Manitoba  School  question  of 
1890. 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  521 

Archbishop  Machray  has  held  a  very  similar  place  in  the  pioneer 
history  of  the  Church  of  England  in  the  North- West  from  the  time 
of  his  consecration,  in  1865,  to  the  present  day.  His  intense  personal 
energy  and  earnest  piety  have  made  a  deep  impression  upon  its  peo- 
ple and  denominational  and  educational  progress.  He  has  not,  how- 
ever, been  nearly  so  striking  a  political  figure  as  his  great  ecclesiastical 
and  religious  rival.  A  curious  contrast  to  both  these  men  was  the 
Hon.  John  Norquay.  A  Half-breed  by  birth  he  impressed  his  virile, 
forceful  disposition  upon  the  politics  and  progress  of  Manitoba, 
became  its  Prime  Minister  in  what  may  be  termed  the  growing  time 
of  Provincial  youth,  and  remained  in  power  from  1878  to  1887.  His 
moderation  of  view  won  him  respect  and  popularity,  as  a  young  man, 
in  the  troubles  of  1869-70,  and  the  same  qualities  served  him  well 
in  later  years ;  while  his  huge,  uncouth  frame  and  curious  personality 
and  strange  manners  made  him  an  unique  figure  in  general  politics. 
After  a  brief  interregnum  filled  by  the  Premiership  of  D.  H.  Harrison, 
he  was  succeeded  in  1888,  by  the  Hon.  Thomas  Greenway — a  farmer 
by  profession,  a  Liberal  in  politics,  and  in  no  way  remarkable  person- 
ally, except  for  the  fact  that  he  held  office  from  that  time  until  the 
end  of  the  century. 

The  extraordinary  personal  feature  of  his  Administration,  how- 
ever, and  the  most  unique  product  of  Canadian  western  politics,  was  the 
Hon.  Joseph  Martin,  who  acted  as  Attorney-General  from  1887  to  1891. 
A  Radical  in  politics,  he  had  a  rough,  uneducated  personality  and  was 
gifted  with  tremendous  vigour  in  speech  and  pluck  in  action  combined 
with  a  perfect  passion  for  political  fighting.  Absence  of  actual  and 
defined  principles  made  him,  in  practice,  a'  demagogue  ;  while  his 
natural  ability  rendered  him  an  acute  antagonist  and  a  useful,  though 
untrustworthy,  ally.  After  he  had  won  an  election  for  Greenway  by 
the  abolition  of  Separate  Schools  in  Manitoba  and  laid,  incidentally, 
a  line  of  dynamite  for  the  destruction  of  the  Conservative  Government 

28 


5«* 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 


at  Ottawa,  he  moved  to  British  Columbia.  There  he  served  a 
short  term  of  office  as  Attorney-General,  suddenly  resigned  the  posi- 
tion and  overthrew  the  Government  he  had  belonged  to,  formed 
another  and,  in  1900,  was  badly  beaten  at  the  polls.  His  career 
is  of  interest  as  revealing  a  type  of  politician  which  only  Western  com- 
munities in  a  crude  state  of  development  could  create  or  tolerate.  A 
much  more  attractive  character  was  that  of  Sir  John  Christian  Schultz. 
A  pioneer  in  the  fur  trade,  in  the  practice  of  medicine  and  in  political 
development,  he  shared  the  ups  and  downs  of  Manitoba  life  to  the 
uttermost  and  served  several  terms  in  the  Dominion  House  of 
Commons,  had  held  a  place  in  the  Senate,  and  had  acted  for  seven 
years  as  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  his  Province. 

THE    INFLATION    OF    1 88o 

The  central  incidents  of  modern  Manitoba  history  are  the  '*  infla- 
tion "  of  1880  and  the  School  question.  The  former  was  a  condition 
of  affairs  only  possible  in  a  very  new  country,  during  the  prevalence 
of  what  are  called  good  times,  and  through  a  sudden  increase  of  land 
values  arising  from  some  such  cause  as  the  proposed  construction  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway.  Visions  of  a  great  and  growing  Prov- 
ince beyond  anything  that  was  reasonable  and  possible  seemed,  in 
1880,  to  be  born  in  a  night  out  of  long-continued  indifference  and 
ignorance.  People  who  had  known  nothing  of,  and  cared  less  for, 
the  vast  possibilities  of  the  wheat-belt  of  the  West  seemed  suddenly 
and  fully  conscious  of  its  existence- and  of  what  might  be  done  by  the 
building  of  a  railway  through  its  fertile  areas.  Aladdin's  lamp  was 
to  be  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  effect  of  this  factor  in  Pro- 
vincial development.  Population,  wheat-fields,  cities  and  towns, 
industries  and  wealth,  presented  themselves  before  the  eyes  of  the 
investing  public.  The  "  boom  "  that  followed  was  of  a  most  distinctly 
American  type.  The  price  of  building  lots  in  Winnipeg  rose  above 
the  value  of  land  centrally  located  in  Montreal,  or  Toronto.  All  kinds 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  ^23 

of  land  schemes  were  floated  in  the  other  Provinces  as  well  as  iiv  the 
local  capital.  Towns  and  cities  grew  up  (on  paper)  as  by  magic  and 
thousands  of  people  in  Ontario,  especially,  sold  solid  securities  and 
took  over  all  their  little  savings,  or  even  mortgaged  salaries  and  pro- 
perties, in  order  to  invest  them  in  prairie  village  lots  of  which  a  first 
survey  had  hardly  been  made. 

The  result  was  a  natural  and  inevitable  one.  For  a  time  every 
thing  prospered  and  every  kind  of  public  enterprise  went  ahead. 
Population  did  increase  a  little  and  money  poured  into  the  country 
for  investment.  Land  values  rose  all  over  the  southern  part  of  the 
Province.  But,  in  the  autumn  of  1882  the  end  came,  the  bubble  of 
inflation  broke  and  millionaires  in  prospect  found  themselves  paupers 
in  fact.  A  great  part  of  the  small  community  became  insolvent, 
the  banks  lost  heavily,  investors  in  Ontario  and  elsewhere  suffered 
severely  and  Manitoba  was  given  a  serious  set-back.  Then  came 
the  troubles  of  1885,  on  the  Saskatchewan,  which  re-acted  upon 
the  Prairie  Province  in  reputation  and  credit  and  helped  further  to 
hamper  the  progress  of  settlement.  Gradually,  however,  these  diffi- 
culties were  overcome ;  steadily  the  richness  of  its  soil  and  the  quali- 
ties of  its  wheat  made  headway  in  the  public  mind  of  the  Dominion  ; 
slowly  and  surely  the  completion  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  promoted 
its  prosperity  by  making  the  Province  known  abroad,  by  bringing  in 
new  settlers,  by  facilitating  the  transport  of  products,  by  bringing  it 
into  the  arena  of  national  interests  and  progress. 

ORIGIN    OF    THE    MANITOBA    SCHOOL    QUESTION 

Then  came  the  Manitoba  School  question.  At  first  it  was 
largely  a  Provincial  issue.  It  soon  developed,  however,  into  a  sort  of 
Dominion  irritant.  Finally  it  became  a  political  storm  of  the  most 
pronounced  seriousness  and  one  which  threatened  public  peace  as 
only  a  semi-religious  question  can  do  in  a  country  such  as  Canada. 
There  have  been  frequent  struggles  over  sectarian  education  in  the 


524  MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 

Provinces  of  British  America.  Prior  to  1863  Ontario  was  torn  with 
dissensions  upon  this  point  and  the  Hon.  George  Brown  had  led  a 
stormy  agitation  against  Separate  Roman  Catholic  Schools.  Confeder- 
ation settled  the  issue  to  some  extent  through  a  compromise  by  which 
the  Protestant  minority  in  Quebec  and  the  Catholic  minority  in 
Ontario  were  guaranteed  a  secure  system  of  Separate  Schools.  It  was 
re-opened  for  a  time,  in  the  latter  Province,  by  alleged  new  and 
increasing  privileges  to  these  schools  at  the  hands  of  the  Mowat 
Government  and,  during  some  years,  Mr.  W.  R.  Meredith  and  Mr. 
D'Alton  McCarthy  took  high  ground  in  the  matter.  But  the  agita- 
tion came  to  nothing.  In  New  Brunswick  the  abolition  of  Separate 
Schools,  not  long  after  Confederation,  raised  a  question  which  politi- 
cians wisely  refused  to  make  serious  capital  out  of  and  which  the 
Courts  finally  disposed  of  by  declaring  the  action  legal. 

In  Manitoba  the  situation  has  been  very  different  and  the  result 
much  more  important  and  interesting.  The  system  in  vogue  there  was 
not  the  same  as  elsewhere  in  Canada ;  the  Province  did  not,  in  this 
respect,  enter  the  Dominion  upon  the  same  terms  as  the  older  parts 
of  the  country ;  its  circumstances  and  local  conditions  have  changed 
more  rapidly  and  completely  than  anywhere  else.  In  1870,  when  the 
country  came  into  Confederation,  its  small  population  was  about 
equally  divided  between  Protestants  and  Catholics  and,  as  a  large 
influx  of  French-Canadian  settlers  was  then  confidently  expected,  it 
was  generally  believed  that  this  balance  would  be  fairly  well  preserved. 
There  is  practically  no  question  that  the  Red  River  people  of  that 
time  and  of  the  Catholic  faith  thought  that  their  religious  and  educa- 
tional customs — they  could  hardly  be  termed  a  system — would  be 
conserved. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  when  authority  was  given  to  the  new  Legis- 
lature, by  the  Manitoba  Act  of  1870,  to  deal  with  education,  it  was 
done,  as  in  all  the  Provinces,  subject  to  the  preservation   of  rights 


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MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  527 

existing  at  the  time  of  the  Union  ;  although  no  law,  ordinance  or 
regulation  was  technically  in  force  in  the  much-troubled  Red  River 
Settlement  of  the  moment.  The  controversy  of  the  future  was  to 
turn,  therefore,  upon  how  far  the  "practice"  then  prevalent  was  a 
privilege  and  right  under  the  terms  of  Union.  Archbishop  Tache, 
who  was  present  at  the  birth  of  educational  facilities  in  the  North- 
West  and  who  for  so  long  rocked  the  cradle  of  their  early  develop- 
ment, declared  with  emphasis  at  a  later  period  that  there  had  been,  in 
1870,  a  number  of  effective  schools  for  children  and  that  some  of  these 
were  regulated  and  controlled  by  his  own  Church,  some  by  different 
Protestant  denominations.  The  means  required  for  the  support  of 
the  Catholic  portion  of  the  schools  were  supplied  partly  by  fees  and 
partly  out  of  Church  funds.  During  this  early  period  neither  Catho- 
lics nor  Protestants  had  interest  in,  or  control  over,  any  schools  but 
those  pertaining  to  their  respective  beliefs. 

In  1 87 1,  shortly  after  joining  the  Dominion,  a  law  was  passed 
by  the  Manitoban  Legislature  which  established  an  organized  system 
of  denominational  education  in  what  were  called  the  common  schools. 
By  this  Act,  twelve  electoral  divisions,  comprising  in  the  main  a 
Protestant  population,  were  to  be  considered  as  constituting 
twelve  Protestant  school  districts  under  the  management  of  the 
Protestant  Section  of  a  Provincial  Board  of  Education.  Similarly, 
twelve  districts,  made  up  chiefly  of  a  Roman  Catholic  population, 
were  constitued  an  equal  number  of  Catholic  school  districts  and  were 
)laced  under  the  control  of  the  Catholic  Section  of  the  Board  of 
Education.  Each  school  division  raised  the  contribution  required,  in 
addition  to  the  amount  given  from  the  public  funds,  in  such  manner 
as  might  be  decided  at  its  annual  meeting.  It  was,  at  first  and  in 
some  respects,  an  application  of  the  Quebec  system  to  a  new  Province. 
But  the  conditions  were,  of  course,  greatly  different  and  that  differ- 
ence increased  radically  as  the  Protestant  part  of  the  population  grew 


528 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 


in  numbers.  Modifications  in  the  system  were  introduced  in  1873 
and  1876  suited  to  changed  and  changing  conditions,  but  the  general 
principle  was  still  maintained.  Nor  did  the  system,  as  a  whole,  work 
badly  or  cause  any  serious  friction,  in  these  years,  between  the  differ- 
ent religious  elements  of  the  people. 

Some  agitation  had  arisen  in  1876  owing  to  the  gradual  growth 
of  villages  and  towns  and  the  general  increase  of  what  might  be 
termed,  somewhat  tentatively,  an  urban  population.  But  it  was  set- 
tled by  the  amendments  of  that  year  which  gave  the  school  districts 
facilities  for  the  issue  of  debentures  and  the  erection  of  suitable 
buildings.  The  Provincial  Board  was  also  re-constituted  in  a  satis- 
factory manner.  For  years  after  this  time  matters  progressed  with- 
out sectarian  trouble  until,  in  1890,  there  were  628  Protestant  schools 
and  91  Catholic  schools  in  the  Province — the  Government  grant  still 
being  divided  proportionally  between  the  two  sections  of  the  Educa- 
tion Board.  Meanwhile,  however,  sectarian  feeling  had  been  growing 
in  Quebec  and  Ontario  and  been  fanned  into  a  passing  flame  by  the 
development  in  public  life  of  such  men  of  opposite  and  varied  charac- 
teristics as  Mercier  and  McCarthy,  Laurier  and  Meredith.  The  ebb- 
tide of  the  Riel  and  Jesuits  Estates  questions  reached  Manitoba, 
the  instinct  of  the  demagogic  politician  seized  the  mind  of  Mr.  Joseph 
Martin,  and  a  favourable  and  popular  moment  was  taken,  in  the  Ses- 
sion of  1890,  to  abolish  the  existing  Separate  School  system. 

The  principle  of  National  and  unsectarian  schools  is  a  most 
desirable  one  where  it  can  be  put  in  force  without  actual  injustice  to 
those  who  disagree  with  it.  But  the  incidents  surrounding  this  par- 
ticular action  of  the  Greenway-Martin  Government  were  unpleasant 
and  aggressive  and  the  legislation  itself  assumed  to  the  minority  the 
aspect  of  a  repudiation  of  Provincial  and  Dominion  pledges.  The 
protests  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  in  Manitoba,  however,  and 
the  energetic  onslaughts  of  Archbishop  Tache  upon  the  Government, 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  529 

in  a  series  of  historical  letters  published  in  the  Winnipeg  Free 
Press,  were  serious  enough  in  their  effect  upon  the  Catholic  popula- 
tion elsewhere  in  Canada  to  soon  raise  the  question  far  above  the 
local  arena.  At  the  same  time  the  minority  had  not  sufficient  local 
strength  to  overcome  the  large  Protestant  majority  or  to  prevent  Mr. 
Greenway  from  obtaining  a  popular  victory  and  endorsation,  in  the 
ensuing  elections  of  1892. 

Under  the  new  Public  School  system  the  Board  of  Education 
was,  of  course,  completely  changed  and  all  school  taxes,  whether 
derived  from  Protestant  or  Catholic,  were  devoted  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  schools  of  the  Province  without  any  religious  distinction.  The 
Provincial  Cabinet  became  the  Board  of  Education,  assisted  by  an 
Advisory  Board  made  up  of  four  or  six  members  appointed  by  the 
Government,  two  elected  by  the  teachers  of  the  Province,  and  one 
selected  by  the  University  of  Manitoba.  The  Department,  or  Gov- 
ernment, was  to  perform  all  Executive  work  in  connection  with 
education  ;  the  Advisory  Board  was  really  to  be  a  Committee  of 
experts  controlling  all  matters  of  a  technical  nature  such  as  teacher's 
qualifications,  text-books,  standards  of  admission  and  promotion  in 
the  schools,  classification  examinations,  and  the  forms  of  religious 
exercise.  Local  districts,  with  trustees  chosen  by  popular  vote,  were 
established.  Upon  the  whole  this  system  has  since  then  worked  well, 
the  standard  of  education  generally  has  advanced,  the  number  of 
schools  have  increased  to  1,018  in  1897  and  the  Provincial  grant  has 
risen  to  $190,000. 

But  to  the  Roman  Catholics  both  the  legislation  and  system  were 
extremely  obnoxious.  They  believed  there,  as  in  Quebec  and  Ontario, 
in  sending  their  children  to  a  school  where  religion  was  a  first  consid- 
eration, secular  education  a  secondary  matter.  They  objected  to  the 
Protestant  religious  exercises,  no  matter  how  deleted  they  might  be, 
and  wanted  schools  of  their  own.     These  they  proceeded  to  maintain 


530  MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 

by  private  contributions  and  despite  the  fact  of  having  to  pay  double 
educational  taxes.  Naturally,  the  question  was  soon  being  widely  dis- 
cussed and  considered  in  other  Provinces  where  Catholics  also  had 
rights  and  privileges  which  they  believed  to  be  guaranteed  by  the 
pact  of  Confederation. 

j  THE    SCHOOL    ACT    IN    DOMINION    POLITICS 

The  first  step  taken  in  the  matter,  in  a  Dominion  sense,  was  a 
strenuous  effort  to  obtain  the  disallowance  of  the  Act  as  an  infringe- 
ment of  the  rights  of  a  Provincial  minority.  A  petition,  dated  March 
6,  1 89 1,  was  presented  to  the  Federal  Government  signed  by  the 
Roman  Catholic  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  the  Dominion  and 
declaring  that  the  Manitoba  School  Act — and  the  subsidiary  measure 
abolishing  dual  language  privileges  in  the  same  Legislature — were 
"  contrary  to  the  dearest  interests  "  of  a  large  portion  of  the  Queen's 
loyal  subjects ;  contrary  to  "  the  assurances  given  during  the  negotia- 
tions" which  determined  the  entry  of  the  Province  of  Manitoba  into 
Confederation ;  contrary  to  the  terms  of  the  British  North  America 
and  Manitoba  Act ;  contrary  to  the  principles  of  public  good  faith. 

A  little  later,  on  April  4th,  the  French  press  of  Quebec  published 
a  pastoral  letter  issued  by  Cardinal  Taschereau  and  the  hierarchy  of 
the   Province  and  which  had  been  read  in  all  the  Catholic  churches. 
It  declared  that  the  legislation  in  question  would  "destroy  the  faith  of 
the  Catholic  children  "  of  Manitoba  and  would  "  despoil  the  Church 
of  her  sacred  rights."  It  urged  once  more  "  the  control  of  the  Church 
over  the  education   of   Catholic  children  "  in  the  schools  and  called 
upon  all  Catholics  "  to  pray  and  to  work  for  justice."     Following, 
however,  the  precedent  which  they  had  set  themselves  in  the  Jesuits 
Estates  case  the  Government  resisted  this  religious  pressure,  and  the 
even  more  potent  political  pressure  which  was  a  natural  accompani- 
ment, refused  to  interfere  with  the  Provincial  legislation  in  the  matter 
and  allowed  the  two  measures  to  go  into  operation.     In  connection 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  531 

with  the  School  Act  Sir  John  Thompson,  as  Minister  of  Justice, 
submitted  a  Report  to  the  Government  advising  the  allowance  of  the 
measure  in  due  course.  It  was  dated  March  21,  1891  and  afterwards 
became  the  cause  of  keen  controversy  and  important  results.  He 
reviewed  the  powers  of  the  Provincial  Legislature  and  declared  that 
the  matter  should  be  left  to  the  Courts.  If,  finally,  the  minority  in 
Manitoba  were  worsted  in  the  legal  warfare  the  time  might  come  for 
the  Dominion  Government  to  interfere  under  the  terms  of  that  por- 
tion of  Section  22  of  the  Manitoba  Act  which  declares  that  "an 
appeal  shall  be  to  the  Governor-General-in-Council  from  any  Act  or 
decision  of  the  Legislature  of  the  Province,  or  of  any  Provisional 
authority  affecting  any  right  or  privilege  of  the  Protestant  or  Roman 
Catholic  minority  of  the  Queen's  subjects,  in  relation  to  education. 
Parliament  may  make  remedial  laws  for  the  due  execution  of  the  provi- 
sions of  this  Section  and  of  any  decision  of  the  Governor-General-in- 
Council." 

Meanwhile,  local  efforts  along  the  legal  line  had  been  strenuous. 
An  appeal  was  early  entered  in  the  Manitoba  Courts  by  Mr.  J.  K. 
Barrett,  on  behalf  of  the  Catholic  rate-payers  of  Winnipeg,  against 
two  City  by-laws  which  imposed  a  rate  of  taxation  upon  men  of  all 
religious  faiths  for  the  support  of  the  public  schools.  In  this  test 
case  it  was  claimed  that  the  old  law  was  still  in  force  owing  to  the 
new  one  being  unconstitutional  and  because  of  the  22d  Section  of  the 
Manitoba  Act,  under  which  the  Province  entered  the  Dominion, 
and  which  declares  that  "  nothing  in  any  such  law  (Provincial) 
shall  prejudicially  affect  any  right  or  privilege  with  respect  to  deno- 
minational schools  which  any  class  of  persons  have  by  law  or  practice 
in  the  Provinces  at  the  Union."  The  Manitoba  Government  main- 
tained, as  against  this  plea,  that  a  Separate  School  system  was  not 
really  in  existence  at  that  time  and  that,  therefore,  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic minority  possessed  no  guarantee  whatever.  On  February  22,  1891, 


532  MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 

the  Court  of  Queen's  Bench  of  the  Province  sustained  the  validity  of 
the  Act,  three  Judges  being  favourable  and  one  opposed — the  latter 
a  French-Canadian  and  Catholic.  Appeal  was  at  once  taken  to  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Canada  and,  in  October  following,  judgment  was 
given  by  that  body  declaring  the  Act  ultra  vires,  allowing  the  appeal 
and  quashing  the  City  by-laws.  The  decision  was  unanimous  and 
Chief  Justice,  Sir  William  Ritchie,  in  presenting  it,  held  that  the  Act 
of  Union  prohibited  the  abolition  of  Separate  Schools  by  Provincial 
Legislatures. 

There  was,  of  course,  much  excitement  in  Winnipeg  over  the 
result  and  the  Greenway  Government  at  once  announced  its  intention 
of  carrying  the  case  to  the  Judicial  Committee  of  the  Imperial  Privy 
Council.  Late  in  July,  1892,  the  decision  of  the  highest  Court  of  Appeal 
in  the  Empire  was  duly  rendered.  It  upheld  the  Manitoba  Courts, 
declared  the  legality  of  the  Act  of  1890,  and  removed  the  judgment  of 
the  Canadian  Supreme  Court.  An  agitation  immediately  began  for  an 
appeal  to  the  Government  for  remedial  legislation  and  Dominion 
interference.  This  was  the  actual  commencement  of  the  storm  which 
was  to  rage  during  four  years  and  to  eventually  shatter  the  Conserv- 
ative Government  at  Ottawa  between  the  two  rival  forces  of  Catholic 
and  Protestant  sentiment.  Sir  John  Thompson's  Report  of  1891 
became  the  centre  of  intense  discussion  and  Section  22  of  the  Mani- 
toba Act  a  subject  of  Dominion  policy  and  politics.  Strong  language 
was  used  on  both  sides  in  connection  with  the  possibility  of  the  Gov- 
ernment at  Ottawa  interfering  in  the  matter.  The  Liberal  organs 
and  speakers  in  Ontario  demanded  respect  for  Provincial  rights  and 
proclaimed  Sir  John  Thompson  a  slave  to  the  interests  and  influence 
of  his  Church.  The  Toronto  Mail,  which  was  still  a  nominally  inde- 
pendent paper — though  bitterly  opposed  to  the  Conservative  Govern- 
ment in  reality — declared  that  "  the  tribunal  of  last  resort  has  pro- 
nounced Manitoba  free  ;  and  free  that  Province  shall  be  if  the  English 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 


533 


population  has  any  voice  in  the  Government  of  this  country."  Mr. 
Mercier,  who  was  still  striving  to  regain  his  lost  place  and  power  in 
Quebec,  tried  to  inflame  religious  sentiment  for  his  own  ends  and,  at 
Montreal,  on  February  23,  1893,  urged  the  people  of  the  Province  to 
"  put  aside  all  the  divisions  and  hatreds  of  the  past  and  join  in  a  fra- 
ternal union  of  2,000,000  of  French-Canadians  against  the  oppression 
of  the  other  Provinces." 

While  all  these  sounds  of  strife  were  in  the  air  the  Government 
had  appointed  a  Sub-Committee  of  their  own  members,  composed  of 
Sir  John  Thompson,  the  Hon.  Mackenzie  Bowell  and  the  Hon.  J.  A. 
Chapleau,  to  hear  the  appeals  from  the  Manitoba  minority  and  to  lis- 
ten to  Mr.  J.  S.  Ewart  Q.  C.  of  Winnipeg  on  behalf  of  the  petitioners. 
Mr.  Ewart  and  Mr.  D'Alton  McCarthy  presented  the  opposite  sides 
of  the  case  with  a  good  deal  of  strength  and  skill  and,  on  January  6, 
1893,  the  Sub-Committee  submitted  a  synopsis  of  the  discussion  to 
the  Dominion  Government  and  recommended  that  another  hearing 
should  be  given  in  which  the  Manitoba  Cabinet  might  be  represented. 
The  latter  Government  refused,  however,  to  consider  the  question  as 
in  any  way  an  open  one,  or  to  send  any  representative.  The  Report 
also  indicated  certain  points  for  consideration  in  the  question  as  to 
whether  the  Governor-General-in-Council  really  had  the  power  to 
grant  remedial  legislation  under  existing  conditions  and  these  subjects 
were  subsequently  brought  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  Canada  in 
the  form  of  six  questions  of  a  constitutional  character. 

They  were  dealt  with  on  February  26,  1894,  by  a  judgment  of 
interpretation  which  held  that  the  Roman  Catholic  minority  had  no 
ground  upon  which  to  solicit  Dominion  legislation.  The  Court  stood 
three  to  two  upon  the  question  and,  curiously  enough,  Mr.  Justice 
King  who,  as  Premier  of  New  Brunswick,  had  many  years  before 
been  instrumental  in  abolishing  the  Separate  Schools  of  that  Province 
supported  the  Catholic  contention  while  Mr.  Justice  Taschereau,   a 


534 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 


French-Canadian,  opposed  the  claims  of  his  own  co-religionists. 
From  this  decision  an  appeal  was  taken  to  the  Imperial  Privy  Council 
and,  in  January,  1895,  a  decision  was  announced  declaring  that  the 
Dominion  Government,  under  the  Confederation  Act,  possessed  the 
right  to  grant  the  remedial  legislation  which  had  been  described  as 
constitutional  and  possible  in  the  Report  of  the  Minister  of  Justice 
in  1 89 1 

That  distinguished  lawyer  and  statesman  had,  meanwhile,  become 
Premier  of  Canada  in  December  1892  and  had  died  suddenly  and 
tragically  at  Windsor  Castle  in  December  1894.  Sir  Mackenzie 
Bowell  ruled  in  his  place  and  there  was  much  trouble  and  perplexity 
in  the  Government  upon  the  School  Question.  Parliament  and  the 
press  were  also  vigorously  discussing  the  question  and  the  possible 
results  of  the  comingr  decision.  An  interesting:  debate  had  taken 
place  in  the  House  on  March  6,  1893  when  this  second  reference  to 
the  Privy  Council  was  announced  and  Mr.  J.  Israel  Tarte  had  pro- 
posed a  motion  disapproving  the  action  of  the  Government.  Sir 
John  Thompson,  in  an  able  and  elaborate  speech,  defended  the  policy 
from  a  constitutional  standpoint  and  Mr.  D'Alton  McCarthy  who 
represented,  probably,  at  this  time  a  very  large  body  of  public  opinion, 
answered  the  Minister  with  force  and  vigour.  He  denounced  the 
Government  for  its  delay  in  settling  a  vexed  question.  The  decision 
one  way  or  the  other  was  vital.  "  It  was  whether  the  Province  of 
Manitoba  with  a  population  of  150,000,  of  whom  not  more  than 
20,000  were  Roman  Catholics,  was  to  have  imposed  upon  it  against 
its  will  a  Separate  School  system."  Mr.  Wilfrid  Laurier,  in  the 
course  of  a  denunciatory  speech  along  general  lines,  made  some 
remarks  which  afford  interesting  reading  a  few  years  later  and  were 
uttered  in  connection  with  the  charge  that  the  limited  religious  teach- 
ing in  the  schools  of  Manitoba  made  them  really  Protestant  schools. 
"  If,"  said   he,  "this  be  indeed   true;    if    under  the  guise  of  public 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  537 

schools  the  Protestant  schools  are  being  continued  and  Roman 
Catholic  children  are  being  forced  to  attend  these  Protestant  schools  ; 
I  say,  and  let  my  words  be  heard  by  friends  and  foes  over  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land,  the  strongest  case  has  been  made  out  for 
Interference  and  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Manitoba  have  been  put  to 
the  most  infamous  treatment."  A  little  later,  however,  when  the 
genial  Liberal  leader  visited  the  Prairie  Province  he  refused  to  say 
definitely  whether  this  supposition  was  a  fact  or  not. 

CABINET    CRISIS    AND    THE    REMEDIAL   ORDER 

From  the  day  In  January,  1895,  when  the  judgment  of  the 
Imperial  Privy  Council  was  received  at  Ottawa,  events  moved  rapidly, 
the  political  sky  became  more  and  more  stormy,  the  controversy  more 
critical  In  its  various  aspects — constitutional,  sectarian  and  partisan. 
The  issue  was  one  which  had  become  so  difficult  to  handle  that  only  a 
great  statesman  such  as  Sir  John  Macdonald  could  have  evolved  any- 
thing like  peace  out  of  the  chaos  of  conflict  which  had  now  developed. 
And  even  the  greatest  ability  and  mental  force  might  have  been  use- 
less without  the  tact  and  savoir faire  which  Sir  John  had  possessed  in 
such  a  pronounced  degree.  There  were  men  of  high  ability  in  the 
Cabinet,  but  they  did  not  possess  the  combination  of  qualities  required, 
and  the  disorganization  grew  steadily  greater.  They  were  also 
opposed,  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Laurler,  by  a  man  whose  charm  of 
manner  and  grace  of  bearing  constituted  a  character  of  growing 
influence,  and  one  in  which  ability  and  tact  were  combined  to  a 
degree  unequalled  since  the  days  of  Sir  John  Macdonald  himself. 
Meanwhile,  the  French-Canadian  members  of  the  Cabinet  wanted 
remedial  legislation  and  many  of  the  English  members  disapproved  of 
it.  The  result  of  the  difference  was  so  pronounced  as  to  soon  become 
public  property  In  all  kinds  of  distorted  forms.  Finally,  In  March, 
1895,  It  was  decided  to  unite  upon  what  was  termed  a  Remedial  Order. 
This  document  commanded  the  Provincial  Government,  under  the 


538  MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 

terms  of  the  constitution  and  in  accordance  with  the  decision  of  the 
Privy  Council,  to  remedy  the  just  grievances  of  the  minority  in 
Manitoba  and  to  restore  any  educational  rights  and  privileges  which 
may  have  been  taken  away  from  them — under  pain  of  Dominion 
legrislation  to  the  same  end. 

At  the  same  time  as  this  Order  was  issued  Sir  Charles  Hibbert 
Tupper,  Minister  of  Justice,  urged  the  bringing  on  of  the  general 
elections  immediately  and  there  is  every  probability  that  if  this 
course  had  been  pursued  the  party  disaster  of  1896  would  not  have 
occurred.  His  advice  was  not  followed  and  a  somewhat  hasty  resig- 
nation of  his  office,  as  a  consequence,  was  not  accepted.  Manitoba 
absolutely  refused  to  obey  the  Remedial  Order  and  early  in  July  a 
Cabinet  crisis  occurred.  Messrs.  J.  A.  Ouimet  and  A.  R.  Angers,  with 
Sir  Adolphe  Caron,  resigned  office.  For  a  few  days  all  was  confusion 
and  then  Mr.  George  E.  Foster,  who  was  acting  as  leader  in  the  Com- 
mons— Sir  M.  Bowell  being  leader  in  the  Senate — announced  on  the 
9th  of  the  month  that  Mr.  Ouimet  and  Sir  A.  P.  Caron  had  withdrawn 
their  resignations ;  that  immediate  communication  would  be  entered 
into  with  the  Manitoba  Government  with  a  view  to  effecting  some  set- 
tlement;  and  that  if  no  satisfactory  result  could  be  reached  the  House 
would  be  asked  in  the  ensuing  January  to  legislate  along  the  lines  of 
the  Remedial  Order.  For  the  moment  the  crisis  was  over  though  the 
calm  was  a  deceitful  one  and  the  political  soil  was  still  breeding  storms. 

The  Manitoba  Government  had  not  the  slightest  intention  of 
losing  a  strong  party  position  and  the  prospects  of  a  successful  Pro- 
vincial election  campaign,  as  well  as  the  chance  of  hurting  a  Conserva- 
tive Dominion  Government,  for  reasons  of  public  peace  and  quietness. 
They  would,  therefore,  do  nothing.  Rumors  also  continued  to  grow 
regarding  dissensions  in  the  Dominion  Cabinet  and,  on  December 
nth,  the  Hon.  N.  Clarke  Wallace,  Comptroller  of  Customs  and 
leader  of  the  Orangemen  of  Canada,  resigned  office.     Within  a  few 


MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION  339 

weeks  the  Manitoba  Government  advised  the  Federal  authorities  dis- 
tinctly and  definitely  that  they  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
re-establishment  of  Separate  Schools  in  any  form  and  then  appealed 
to  the  people  for  approval.  They  were  given,  in  January  1896,  a 
sweeping  majority  and,  on  February  27th,  the  new  Legislature,  by  31 
to  7  votes,  protested  against  any  Dominion  interference  in  Provincial 
school  affairs.  Meanwhile,  the  Dominion  Parliament  had  been 
opened  on  January  2nd,  and  the  announcement  made  that  legislation 
would  be  shortly  introduced  to  carry  out  the  terms  of  the  Remedial 
Order.  It  had  hardly  more  than  met,  however,  before  another  and 
far  more  serious  Cabinet  crisis  occurred.  Seven  Ministers — Messrs. 
George  E.  Foster,  John  G.  Haggart,  W.  B.  Ives,  W.  H.  Montague, 
A.  R.  Dickey,  J.  F.  Wood  and  Sir  Charles  Hibbert  Tupper — resigned 
on  the  5th  of  the  month. 

SIR   CHARLES    TUPPER   AND    THE    ELECTIONS    OF    1 896 

It  was  simply  a  long-continued  disagreement  and  disorganization 
coming  to  a  head.  Sir  Mackenzie  Bowell  was  hardly  a  strong  enough 
leader  to  hold  together  a  Cabinet  of  conflicting  opinions  and  personal 
differences  in  the  face  of  a  public  crisis  and  a  most  complex  national 
issue.  He  was  a  man  of  the  highest  character  and  administrative 
ability  but  would  have  been  the  first  to  disclaim  the  qualities  of  a 
great  leader.  The  trouble  lasted  for  some  days  and  ended  in  Sir 
Charles  Tupper,  who  had  recently  come  from  England  to  further  the 
proposed  fast  Atlantic  Line  of  Steamships,  giving  up  his  High  Com- 
missionership,  taking  a  position  in  the  Ministry  and  the  lead  in  the 
'House  of  Commons.  To  the  latter  he  was  shortly  afterwards  elected 
from  Cape  Breton  Island.  It  was  a  brave  and  unselfish  thing  to  do 
and  the  task  before  him  was  enough  to  appal  a  much  younger  and 
more  ambitious  man.  The  other  Ministers  rejoined  the  Government 
and  Parliament  was  soon  able  to  proceed  with  the  discussion  of  the 
Remedial  Bill  which  was  introduced,  as  promised,  on  February  nth. 


540  MANITOBA  AND  THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION 

Early  in  March  Sir  Charles  Tupper  moved  the  second  reading 
of  the  measure  and,  on  April  27th,  the  retirement  of  Sir  M.  Bowell 
and  his  own  accession  to  the  Premiership  were  announced.  Mean- 
time, Sir  Donald  A.  Smith,  the  Hon.  Alphonse  Desjardins  and  the 
Hon.  A.  R.  Dickey  had  been  sent  to  Winnipeg  as  a  Commission  to 
try  and  effect  a  compromise  or  settlement  of  the  School  question. 
But  the  mission  was  unsuccessful  and,  unfortunately  for  the  Conserva- 
tive party.  Sir  Charles  Tupper  was  equally  unsuccessful  in  getting 
the  Remedial  Bill  through  Parliament.  The  Opposition  obstructed 
its  progress  until  the  time  came  when  the  House  had  to  be  adjourned 
and  the  general  elections  held.  The  Tupper  Government  went  to 
the  country  largely,  though  not  of  their  own  desire,  upon  this  issue 
and  met  with  an  overwhelming  defeat.  Mr.  Laurier  became  Premier 
and,  in  November  1896,  an  arrangement  was  made  between  the  new 
Liberal  Government  of  Canada  and  that  of  Manitoba  which  the  party 
in  power  termed  a  successful  compromise  and  absolute  settlement 
and  which  the  new  Opposition  described  as  a  veritable  farce. 

It  was  to  the  general  effect  that  the  non-sectarian  character  of 
the  schools  should  be  maintained  and  provision  made  for  bi-lingual 
teaching  where  desired  and  for  Catholic  religious  teaching  within  cer- 
tain hours  for  children  of  that  faith.  Mutterings  of  dissatisfaction  were 
still  heard  in  Quebec,  however,  and  in  March  1897  the  Pope  issued  an 
Encyclical  instructing  the  Bishops  of  the  Province  to  suspend  all  fur- 
ther expression  of  opinion  or  action  until  His  Holiness  had  investi- 
gated the  matter  thoroughly.  The  result  was  the  despatch  of  Mg'r 
Merry  del  Val  to  Canada  as  Papal  Ablegate  and  the  practical  disap- 
pearance of  the  issue  from  Canadian  politics  after  his  conferences 
with  the  hierarchy  and  return  to  Rome. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 
The  South  African  War  and  Imperialism  in  Canada 

THE  Contingents  which  went  from  Canada  to  participate  in  the 
South  African  War  of  1899- 1900  were  the  effect  and  not  the 
cause  of  Canadian  Imperialism.  The  sentiment  surrounding 
the  war,  in  the  Dominion  as  in  every  other  part  of  the  Empire,  was 
the  arousing  of  a  dormant  but  undoubtedly  existent  loyalty  and  could 
not,  therefore,  be  the  cause  of  an  expressed  and  evident  devotion  to 
Crown  and  Empire.  Yet  the  war  did  service  which  perhaps  nothing 
else  could  have  done  in  proving  the  existence  of  this  Imperial 
sentiment  to  the  most  shallow  observer,  or  hostile  critic  ;  in  arousing 
it  to  heights  of  enthusiasm  never  dreamt  of  by  the  most  fervent 
Imperialist;  in  rendering  it  possible  for  statesmen  to  change  many  a 
pious  aspiration  into  practical  action  or  announced  policy ;  in  making 
the  organized  defence  of  the  Empire  a  future  certainty  and  its  some- 
what shadowy  system  of  union  a  visible  fact  to  the  world  at  large. 

POSITION    OF    CANADA    IN    THE    EMPIRE 

So  far  as  Canada  was  concerned  its  action  seems  to  have  been 
partly  a  product  of  the  sentiment  of  military  pride  which  was  first 
aroused  by  the  gathering  together  of  Canadian  troops  to  subdue  the 
insurrection  of  1885  ;  partly  a  consequence  of  the  growth  of  a 
Canadian  sentiment  which  is  local  in  scope  and  character,  yet  curiously 
anxious  to  make  the  Dominion  known  abroad  and  pQculiarly  sensitive 
to  British  opinion  and  approbation  ;  partly  an  outcome  of  genuine 
loyalty  amongst  the  people  to  British  institutions  and  to  the  Crown 
as  embodied  in  the  personality  and  prestige  of  the  Queen  ;  partly  a 
result  of  the  shock  to  sensitive  pride  which  came  from  seeing  the  soil 

29  541 


542  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

of  the  Empire  in  South  Africa  invaded  by  the  Boers  and  the  position 
of  the  motherland  in  Europe  threatened  by  a  possible  combination 
of  hostile  Powers.  Upon  the  surface  this  last-mentioned  cause  was 
the  principal  and  most  prominent  one. 

There  was  no  considerable  precedent  for  the  proffer  of  troops  to 
the  Imperial  Government.  During  the  Crimean  War  nothing  had 
been  done  by  the  then  disorganized  Provinces  except  the  voting  of  a 
sum  of  money  for  widows  and  orphans  and  the  enlistment  of  the 
Hundredth  Regiment.  In  the  days  of  the  Trent  Affair  and  the 
Fenian  raids,  the  Fort  Garry  rising  and  the  Saskatchewan  rebellion, 
volunteers  were  available  ;  but  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  fighting  upon 
Canadian  soil  in  defence  of  Canadian  homes. 

PROFFER    OF    TROOPS 

During  the  Soudan  War  of  1885  a  small  body  of  Canadian  volun- 
teers and  voyageurs,  paid  from  Imperial  funds  and  enlisted  by  request  of 
the  British  Commander,  had  gone  up  the  Nile  in  Lord  Wolseley's  expe- 
dition and  under  the  immediate  command  of  Lieut-Colonel  F.  C.  Deni- 
son.  But  there  was  not  much  public  interest  in  the  matter  and  it  hardly 
created  a  ripple  upon  the  slow-rolling  stream  of  Canadian  thought. 
A  large  force,  amid  much  local  enthusiasm,  had  also  departed  from 
the  shores  of  New  South  Wales.  No  doubt  these  precedents  had 
some  effect,  but  a  greater  factor  was  the  one  elsewhere  mentioned  of 
an  increasing  military  feeling  which  had  been  first  aroused  amongst 
the  people  as  a  result  of  the  battles  of  1885  upon  the  North-West  soil 
and  the  sufferings,  privations,  and  casualities  amongst  the  soldiers 
who  had  then  gone  to  the  front. 

More  important,  however,  as  a  factor  in  this  and  other  develop- 
ments of  an  Imperial  nature  was  the  work  done  by  the  Imperial 
Federation  League  in  Canada  during  the  years  following  1885.  That 
organization  and  its  leaders  had  drawn  persistent  attention  in  speeches, 
and  pamphlets,  and  magazines,  and  newspaper  articles,  to  the  change 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  543 

of  sentiment  which  had  come  over  the  public  men  of  Great  Britain  in 
connection  with  Empire  affairs ;  to  the  fact  that  the  Manchester 
School  of  unpleasant  memory  was  practically  dead  and  that  Mr. 
Goldwin  Smith  was  but  a  lonely  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness  the 
doctrines  of  a  degraded  and  decadent  system  of  thought ;  to  the 
melancholy  picture  presented  by  the  few  Canadian  believers  in  the 
old-time  advocacy  of  Colonial  independence  as  they  stood  garbed  in 
the  cast-of  clothes  of  Manchester ;  to  the  greatness  of  the  Empire  in 
extent,  in  population,  in  resources,  in  power,  and  in  political  use- 
fulness to  all  humanity ;  to  the  necessity  and  desirability  of  closer 
union. 

The  effect  of  the  League's  work*  in  England  and  in  Canada 
became  indirectly  visible  in  many  directions  and  strongly  aided  a 
development  along  Imperial  lines  which  has  since  become  marked 
and  continuous.  Canada'took  part  in  the  Indian  and  Colonial  Exhi- 
bition of  1886,  in  the  Imperial  Conference  of  1887,  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Imperial  Institute,  in  the  calling  of  the  Colonial  Confer- 
ence of  1894  at  Ottawa,  in  a  number  of  movements  looking  to 
Imperial  cables.  Imperial  penny  postage.  Imperial  tariffs  and  Imperial 
steamship  lines.  But  nothing  of  a  military  nature  was  advocated 
and  the  point  was,  in  fact,  almost  tabooed.  The  leaders  of  the  League 
in  London,  in  Melbourne,  or  in  Toronto,  were  equally  afraid  to  touch 
a  portion  of  the  general  problem  which  was  obviously  so  far  in 
advance  of  Colonial  public  opinion  as  to  render  its  advocacy  danger- 
ous to  the  cause.  The  events  of  1899  were,  therefore,  all  the  more 
remarkable. 

That  a  struggle  should  break  out  in  far-away  South  Africa  and 
create  in  Canada  and  Australasia  an  instantaneous  intensity  of  interest 
comparable  only  to  that  felt  by  the  American  people  of  the  North  in 

*  As  an  active  officer  of  the  League  during  almost  the  whole  of  its  history  in  Canada  the  author  is   in  a  position 
to  know  something  of  the  work  done  and  influence  wielded  by  the  organization. 


544  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

their  conflict  with  the  South  is  one  of  the  most  curious  incidents  in 
history.  The  fact  of  its  being  a  war  in  which  the  territory  of  the 
Empire  was  threatened  was  the  real  reason  for  this  stirring  expres- 
sion of  loyal  sentiment  though  the  advance  of  public  opinion  in  this  con- 
nection is  shown  when  we  remember  that  in  1862  Canadian  soil  was 
menaced  by  the  Trent  affair  and  in  1866  by  the  Fenian  raids  without 
eliciting  any  special  signs  of  sympathy  from  Australasia  ;  while  in  1878 
the  Empire  of  India  was  threatened  with  invasion  by  Russia,  and  again 
at  the  time  of  Pendjeh  incident,  without  creating  any  great  stir  in 
either  Canada  or  Australia.  So  with  the  peril  which  faced  Natal  in 
1879  from  the  blood-stained  Impis  of  Cetywayo.  In  the  case  of  the 
Transvaal  embroglio,  however,  Canada  felt  a  special  attraction  from 
the  first  on  account  of  its  being  a  racial  matter  and  one  of  a  kind 
which  the  Dominion  had  encountered  more  than  once  and  disposed 
of  successfully.  The  diplomatic  contest  between  Mr.  Chamberlain 
and  President  Kruger  and  Sir  Alfred  Milner  was  therefore  watched 
with  keen  attention  and  there  was  considerable  isolated  talk  of  volun- 
teering for  the  front  in  case  of  war — though  this  was  checked  by  a 
feeling  that  the  struggle  would  be  short  and  insignificant. 

INTEREST    SHOWN    IN    THE    IMPERIAL    SITUATION 

Still,  there  was  amongst  military  men  a  strong  under-current  of 
desire  to  raise  some  kind  of  volunteer  force  for  active  service  and,  in  this 
connection,  Lieutenant-Colonel  S.  Hughes,  M.  P.,  was  particularly 
enthusiastic.  He  introduced  the  subject  in  Parliament,  on  July  12th, 
while  negotiations  were  still  pending  between  President  Kruger  and 
Mr.  Chamberlain.  The  result  was  that,  despite  the  fact  of  Queens- 
land having  already  offered  troops  and  his  own  expression  of  opinion 
that  5,000  men  would  readily  volunteer  in  Canada,  it  was  thought 
best  not  to  take  any  immediate  action,  and  the  Premier,  Sir  Wilfrid 
Laurier,  expressed  the  hope  and  belief  that,  in  view  of  the  absolute 
justice   of   the    Uitlanders'  claims,   recognition   would   eventually  be 


8^ 

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5^ 

<       0) 


2  « 
■n  B 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  547 

given  them  and  war  averted.  On  July  31st  more  definite  action  was 
taken,  and  the  following  Resolution,  moved  in  the  House  of  Commons 
by  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  and  seconded  by  the  Hon.  G.  E.  Foster  in  the 
absence,  but  with  the  approval  of.  Sir  Charles  Tupper  as  leader  of 
the  Opposition,  was  carried  unanimously  : 

"  That  this  House  has  viewed  with  regret  the  complications  which  have  arisen  in 
the  Transvaal  Republic,  of  which  Her  Majesty  is  Suzerain,  from  the  refusal  to  accord 
to  Her  Majesty's  subjects  now  settled  in  that  region  an  adequate  participation  in  its 
Government.  That  this  House  has  learned  with  still  greater  regret  that  the  condition 
of  things  there  existing  has  resulted  in  intolerable  oppression  and  has  produced  great 
and  dangerous  excitement  among  several  classes  of  Her  Majesty's  subjects  in  Her  South 
African  possessions.  That  this  House,  representing  a  people  which  has  largely  suc- 
ceeded by  the  adoption  of  the  principle  of  conceding  equal  political  rights  to  every 
portion  of  the  population,  in  harmonizing  estrangements  and  in  producing  general 
content  with  the  existing  system  of  Government,  desires  to  express  its  sympathy  with 
the  efforts  of  Her  Majesty's  Imperial  authorities  to  obtain  for  the  subjects  of  Her 
Majesty,  who  have  taken  up  their  abode  in  the  Transvaal,  such  measure  of  justice  and 
political  recognition  as  may  be  found  necessary  to  secure  them  in  the  full  possession  of 
equal  rights  and  liberties.  " 

The  members,  after  passing  the  motion,  sprang  to  their  feet  and 
sang  "  God  Save  the  Queen,"  amid  a  scene  of  striking  enthusiasm 
which  was  duplicated  a  little  later  in  the  Senate.  Following  this 
expression  of  feeling,  Colonel  Hughes  endeavoured,  upon  his  own 
responsibility,  to  raise  a  regiment  for  foreign  service  and,  in  doing  so, 
naturally  came  into  collision  with  the  head  of  the  militia — Major- 
General  E.  T.  H.  Hutton.  The  result  of  this  enthusiastic  rashness 
was,  of  course,  failure  in  the  attempt,  though  at  the  same  time  he  was 
able  to  afford  a  distinct  indication  of  the  general  feeling  in  favour  of 
something  being  done  should  war  break  out.  Leading  papers  took 
up  the  subject  and  approved  the  sending  of  a  force  in  case  of  neces- 
sity and,  on  October  2nd,  a  few  days  before  the  war  began,  a  large 
and  representative  meeting  of    Militia  officers  was  held  in  Toronto 


548     *       THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

and  the  following  Resolution  passed  with  unanimity  and  enthusiasm 
on  motion  of  Lieutenant-Colonels  George  T.  Denison  and  James 
Mason:  "That  the  members  of  the  Canadian  Military  Institute, 
feeling  that  it  is  a  clear  and  definite  duty  for  all  British  possessions  to 
show  their  willingness  to  contribute  in  the  common  defence  in  case  of 
need,  express  the  hope  that,  in  view  of  the  impending  hostilities  in 
South  Africa,  the  Government  of  Canada  will  promptly  offer  a  con- 
tingent of  Canadian  Militia  to  assist  in  supporting  the  interests  of  our 
Empire  in  that  country." 

On  the  following  day  the  Prime  Minister  was  interviewed  at 
Ottawa  and  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  would  be  unconstitutional 
for  the  Militia,  or  a  portion  of  it,  to  be  sent  out  of  Canada  without 
the  permission  of  Parliament,  and  that  it  would  take  some  weeks  to 
call  that  body  together.  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  declared*  that  "  There 
is  no  doubt  as  to  the  attitude  of  the  Government  on  all  ques- 
tions that  mean  menace  to  British  interests,  but  in  this  present  case 
our  limitations  are  very  clearly  defined.  And  so  it  is  that  we  have 
not  offered  a  Canadian  Contingent  to  the  Home  authorities."  Mean- 
time, however,  the  matter  had  been  under  consideration,  all  the  inde- 
pendent offers  to  serve  from  individuals  or  regiments  had  been  duly 
forwarded  to  the  Colonial  Ofifice,  and  each  had  received  the  stereo- 
typed reply  that,  while  negotiations  were  in  progress,  no  further  troops 
were  required. 

Public  sentiment  in  Canada  soon  proved  too  strong  for  what 
might  have  been,  in  other  circumstances,  a  legitimate  constitutional 
delay.  On  September  27th  Sir  Charles  Tupper,  in  a  speech  at  Hali- 
fax, offered  the  Government  the  fullest  support  of  the  Conservative 
Opposition  in  the  sending  of  a  Contingent,  and,  on  October  6th, 
telegraphed  the  Premier  to  the  same  effect.  The  British  Empire 
League  in  Canada  passed  a   Resolution  declaring  that  the  time  had 

•Toronto  Globe,  October  4th,  1899. 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  549 

come  when  all  parts  of  the  Queen's  dominions  should  share  in  the 
defence  of  British  interests,  and  the  St.  John  Telegraph — a  strong 
Liberal  paper — declared,  on  September  30th,  that  "  Canada  should 
not  only  send  a  force  to  the  Transvaal,  but  should  maintain  it  in  the 
field."  The  Montreal  vS/^r  sought  and  received  telegrams  from  the 
Mayors  of  nearly  every  town  in  the  Dominion  endorsing  the  proposal 
to  despatch  military  assistance  to  fellow-subjects  in  South  Africa.  Mr. 
J.  W.  Johnston,  Mayor  of  Belleville,  represented  the  general  tone  of 
these  multitudinous  messages  in  the  words :  "  It  is  felt  that  the 
Dominion,  being  a  partner  in  the  Empire  should  bear  Imperial 
responsibilities  as  well  as  share  Imperial  honours  and  protection." 
The  Toronto  Globe — the  leading  Ontario  Liberal  paper — also  sup- 
ported the  proposal,  and  soon  the  country  from  Halifax  to  Van- 
couver was  stirred  as  it  had  not  been  since  the  North-west  Rebellion 
of  1885 — perhaps  as  it  has  never  been  in  the  sense  of  covering  the 
entire  Dominion. 

ATTITUDE    OF    FRENCH-CANADIANS 

There  was,  inevitably,  some  opposition,  and  it  was  largely  voiced 
by  the  Hon.  J.  Israel  Tarte,  Minister  of  Public  Works  in  the  Dominion 
Government.  It  was  not  apparently  a  note  of  disloyalty ;  it  was 
simply  the  expression  of  a  lack  of  enthusiasm  and  the  magnifying  of 
constitutional  dangers  or  difficulties.  No  one  in  Canada  expected  the 
French-Canadians,  amongst  whom  Mr.  Tarte  is  a  party  leader,  to 
look  upon  the  matter  with  just  the  same  warmth  of  feeling  as 
actuated  English-Canadians  ;  and  very  few  believed  that  the  absence 
of  this  enthusiasm  indicated  any  sentiment  of  actual  disloyalty  to  the 
Crown  or  the  country.  The  people  of  Quebec  had  not  yet  been 
educated  up  to  the  point  of  participation  in  British  wars  and  Imperial 
defence  ;  they  were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  much  the  same  position 
that  the  people  of  Ontario  had  been  in  ten  or  fifteen  years  before.  The 
influences  making  for  closer  Empire  unity  could  never  in  their  case 


550  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

include  a  racial  link  or  evolve  from  a  common  langfuao^e  and  literature. 
The  most  and  best  that  could  be  expected  was  a  passive  and  not  dis- 
tinctly unfriendly  acquiescence  in  the  new  and  important  departure 
from  precedent  and  practice  which  was  evidenced  by  the  announce- 
ment, on  October  12th,  that  a  Canadian  Contingent  had  been  accepted 
by  the  Imperial  Government  and  was  to  be  dispatched  to  South 
Africa. 

There  was  no  active  opposition  to  the  proposal  except  from  a 
section  of  the  French-Canadian  press  edited  by  Frenchmen  from  Paris, 
and  from  a  rash  young  Member  of  Parliament  who  resigned  his  seat 
as  a  protest  and  was  afterwards  re-elected  by  acclamation — both 
parties  deeming  it  wisest  to  treat  the  matter  as  of  no  importance. 
Mr.  Tarte,  himself,  eventually  fell  into  line  with  his  colleagues,  but 
with  the  public  announcement  that  he  did  not  approve  the  principle 
of  sending  troops  abroad  without  Parliamentary  sanction  ;  that  he 
had  obtained  the  Government's  approval  to  an  official  statement  that 
this  present  action  was  not  to  be  considered  as  a  precedent ;  and  that  he 
thought  the  only  way  to  adequately  meet  similar  situations  in  future 
was  by  definite  and  permanent  arrangement  with  the  Imperial  author- 
ities and  representation  in  Imperial  Councils.  Upon  the  subject  as 
a  whole  his  attitude  was  certainly  logical  and  loyal,  but  in  effect  it 
was  untimely,  unpopular  and  unnecessary.  And  the  continued  utter- 
ances of  his  son's  paper — La  Patrie  of  Montreal — were  of  a  nature  cal- 
culated to  irritate  loyal  sentiment  and  to  arouse  serious  misapprehen- 
sion amongst  French-Canadians. 

However,  the  feeling  of  the  country  generally  was  too  fervent  to 
permit  this  obstacle  having  anything  more  than  an  ephemeral  and  pass- 
ing influence.  And  any  opposition  which  might  exist  amongst  French- 
Canadians  assumed  an  essentially  passive  character.  Toward  the  end 
of  October  an  already  announced  pledge  from  an  anonymous  friend* 

•  This  generosity  was  afterwards  found  to  emanate  from  the  ever-generous  Lord  Strathcona. 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  551 

of  Sir  Charles  Tupper's  to  insure  the  life  of  each  member  of  the 
Contingent  to  the  extent  of  $1,000  was  redeemed  and  ;  on  October 
24th,  the  following  message  was  received  through  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  the  Colonies  :  "  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  desires  to  thank 
the  people  of  her  Dominion  of  Canada  for  their  striking  manifesta- 
tion of  loyalty  and  patriotism  in  their  voluntary  offer  to  send  troops 
to  co-operate  with  Her  Majesty^s  Imperial  forces,  in  maintaining  her 
position  and  the  rights  of  British  subjects  in  South  Africa.  She 
wishes  the  troops  God-speed  and  a  safe  return." 

THE    FIRST    CONTINGENT    FOR    SOUTH    AFRICA 

The  first  Contingent  of  one  thousand  men  steamed  down  the 
St.  Lawrence  from  Quebec  on  October  30th,  after  farewell  banquets 
to  the  officers  and  an  ovation  from  immense  crowds  in  the  gayly  deco- 
rated streets  of  the  "  Ancient  Capital."  For  weeks  before  this  date 
little  divisions  of  50,  or  100,  or  125  men  had  been  leaving  their 
respective  local  centres  amidst  excitement  such  as  Canada  had  never 
witnessed  before.  St.  John  and  Halifax,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  were 
met  by  Victoria  and  Vancouver,  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  in  a 
wild  outburst  of  patriotic  enthusiasm.  Toronto  and  Winnipeg 
responded  for  the  centre  of  the  Dominion  and,  at  the  Quebec  "  send 
off,"  there  were  delegations  and  individual  representatives  from  all 
parts  of  the  country.  Every  village  which  contributed  a  soldier  to 
the  Contingent  also  added  to  the  wave  of  popular  feeling  by  marking 
his  departure  as  an  event  of  serious  import,  while  Patriotic  Funds  of 
every  kind  were  started  and  well  maintained  throughout  the  country. 
It  was,  indeed,  a  manifestation  of  the  military  and  Imperial  spirit 
such  as  Canadians  had  never  dreamed  of  seeing,  and  for  many  months 
the  words  upon  every  lip  were  those  of  the  popular  air — "  Soldiers  of 
the  Queen."  To  quote  the  Hon.  F.  W.  Borden,  Minister  of  Militia 
and  Defence,  at  the  Quebec  banquet  on  October  29th:  "This  was 
the  people's  movement,  not   that  of   any   Government  or  party ;    it 


552  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

emanated  from  the  whole  people  of  Canada  and  it  is  being  endorsed 
by  them  as  shown  by  the  words  and  deeds  of  the  people  at  all  points 
where  the  troops  started  from."  The  Earl  of  Minto,  as  Governor- 
General,  in  bidding  official  farewell  to  the  troops  on  the  succeeding 
day,  expressed  the  same  idea,  and  added,  in  words  of  serious  impor- 
tance when  coming  from  the  Queen's  Representative  and  bearing, 
indirectly,  upon  the  much-discussed  question  of  Government  hesitancy 
in  making  the  first  offer  of  military  aid,  that : 

"The  people  of  Canada  had  shown  that  they  had  no  inclination  to  discuss  the 
quibbles  of  Colonial  responsibilty.  They  had  unmistakably  asked  that  their  loyal 
offers  be  made  known  and  rejoiced  in  their  gracious  acceptance.  In  so  doing  surely 
they  had  opened  a  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  our  Empire.  They  freely  made 
their  military  gift  to  the  Imperial  cause  to  share  the  privations  and  dangers  and  glories 
of  the  Imperial  army.  They  had  insisted  on  giving  vent  to  an  expression  of  senti- 
mental, Imperial  unity  which  might,  perhaps,  hereafter  prove  more  binding  than  any 
written  Imperial  constitution." 

The  principal  officers  of  the  Contingent  were  its  commander, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  W,  D.  Otter,  who  had  seen  active  service  in  the 
North-west  Rebellion,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Lawrence  Buchan,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel O.  C.  C.  Pelletier,  Major  J.  C.  McDougall  and  Major 
S.  J,  A.  Denison,  who  was  afterwards  appointed  to  Lord  Roberts' 
Staff.  The  troopship  Sardinian  arrived  at  Cape  Town  on  the  29th 
of  November,  and  the  Canadians  were  given  a  splendid  reception — 
Sir  Alfred  Milner  cabling  Lord  Minto  that :  "  The  people  here 
showed  in  unmistakable  manner  their  appreciation  of  the  sympathy 
and  help  of  Canada  in  their  hour  of  trial."  The  Royal  Canadian 
Regiment  of  Infantry,  as  the  Contingent  was  called,  at  once  went  up 
to  De  Aar,  and  later  on  to  Belmont,  the  scene  of  Lord  Methuen's 
gallant  fight.  From  here  a  portion  of  the  Canadian  troops  took  part 
in  a  successful  raid  upon  Sunnyside,  a  place  some  distance  away, 
where  there  was  an  encampment  of  Boers.  A  number  of  the  enemy 
were  captured,  but  the  incident   was  chiefly  memorable  as  the   first 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR—IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  553 

time  in  history,  as  well  as  in  the  war  itself,  when  Canadians  and  Aus- 
tralians have  fought  side  by  side  with  British  regular  troops.  Mean- 
while, public  feeling  in  Canada  seemed  to  favour  the  sending  of  further 
aid,  and  its  feasibility  was  more  than  shown  by  the  thousands  who 
had  volunteered  for  the  first  Contingent,  over  and  above  those 
selected.  But  it  was  not  until  some  of  the  earlier  reverses  of  the  war 
took  place  that  the  offer  of  a  second  Contingent  was  pressed  upon 
the  Home  Government.  On  November  8th,  however,  it  was  declined 
for  the  moment  and  a  week  later  Mr.  Chamberlain  wrote  the  follow- 
ing expressive  words  to  the  Governor-General  : 

'^The  great  enthusiasm  and  the  general  eagerness  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
military  expedition  which  has  unfortunately  been  found  necessary  for  the  maintenance 
of  British  rights  and  interests  in  South  Africa  have  afforded  much  gratification  to  Her 
Majesty's  Government  and  the  people  of  this  country.  The  desire  exhibited  to  share 
in  the  risks  and  burdens  of  empire  has  been  welcomed  not  only  as  a  proof  of  the  staunch 
loyalty  of  the  Dominion  and  of  its  sympathy  with  the  policy  pursued  by  Her  Majesty's 
Government  in  South  Africa,  but  also  as  an  expression  of  that  growing  feeling  of  the 
unity  and  solidarity  of  the  Empire  which  has  marked  the  relations  of  the  Mother- 
country  with  the  Colonies  during  recent  years.  " 

A    SECOND    CONTINGENT    IS    SENT 

On  December  i8th,  events  in  South  Africa  and  the  pressure  of 
loyal  proffers  of  aid  from  Australia  and  elsewhere  induced  the  Imper- 
ial Government  to  change  their  minds,  the  second  Contingent  from 
the  Dominion  was  accepted,  and  once  again  the  call  to  arms  resounded 
throughout  Canada.  The  first  troops  had  been  composed  of  infantry, 
the  second  were  made  up  of  artillery  and  cavalry.  Eventually,  it  was 
decided  to  send  1,220  men,  together  with  horses,  guns,  and  complete 
equipment,  and  they  duly  left  for  the  Cape,  in  detachments,  toward 
the  end  of  January  and  in  the  beginning  of  February.  A  third  force  of 
400  mounted  men  was- recruited  in  the  latter  month  and  sent  to  the 
seat  of  war  fully  equipped,  and  with  all  expenses  paid,  through  the 
personal  and  patriotic  generosity    of   Lord  Strathcona  and   Mount 


554  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

Royal,  the  Canadian  High  Commissioner  in  London.  In  addition  to 
"  Strathcona's  Horse,"  another  independent  force  of  125  men  was 
offered  in  similar  fashion  by  the  British  Columbia  Provincial  Govern- 
ment and  duly  accepted  at  London  and  Ottawa,  though  for  local 
reasons  of  political  change  never  despatched  ;  while  a  movement  was 
commenced  to  proffer  an  organized  Dominion  Brigade  of  10,000  men, 
if  required. 

Little  wonder,  therefore,  when  such  a  popular  spirit  was  shown, 
and  when  the  anxiety  to  enlist  and  the  influence  used  to  obtain  a 
chance  of  going  to  the  front  were  greater  than  men  usually  show  to 
obtain  positions  of  permanent  financial  value,  that  Field  Marshal,  Lord 
Roberts,  shortly  after  his  appointment  to  South  Africa,  should  have 
cabled  his  expression  of  belief  that  "the  action  of  Canada  will  always 
be  a  glorious  page  in  the  history  of  the  sons  of  the  Empire.  I  look 
for  great  things  from  the  men  she  has  sent  and  is  sending  to  the 
front."  Meantime,  even  the  slightest  opposition  to  the  policy  of 
aiding  the  Empire  had  died  out — In  fact,  its  assertion  would  have 
been  dangerous,  or  at  least  unpleasant,  and  when  Parliament  met 
early  In  February  the  Government  announced  Its  intention  of  ask- 
ing a  vote  of  $2,000,000  for  expenses  In  the  despatch  of  the  Con- 
tingents and  for  the  payment  after  their  return,  or  to  the  heirs 
of  those  who  were  killed,  of  an  addition  to  the  ordinary  wage  of  the 
British  soldier. 

This  brief  description  of  the  events  leading  up  to  and  illustrating 
Canada's  action  during  an  eventful  period  may  be  concluded  by  a 
quotation  from  the  speech  of  the  Hon.  G.  W.  Ross,  Prime  Minister 
of  Ontario,  at  a  banquet  given  in  Toronto  on  December  21st,  to  Mr. 
J.  G.  H.  Bergeron,  M.P.,  of  Montreal — a  French-Canadian  who  had 
expressed  In  fervent  terms  what  he  believed  to  be  the  loyalty  of  his 
people  to  the  British  Crown.  Mr.  Ross  declared  in  emphatic  and 
eloquent  language  that : 


Fi"SLC  MARSHAL  LORD   ROBERTS  AND  FOUR  CANADIAN  OFFICERS  WHO  SERVED 
WITH  DISTINCTION  IN  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  557 

"  Itis  not  for  us  to  say  that  one  or  two  Contingents  should  be  sent  to  the  Trans- 
vaal, but  to  say  to  Great  Britain  that  all  our  money  and  all  our  men  are  at  the  disposal 
of  the  British  Empire.  It  is  not  for  us  to  balance  questions  of  Parliamentary  procedure 
when  Britain's  interests  are  at  stake  but  to  respond  to  the  call  that  has  been  sent 
throughout  the  whole  Empire  and  to  show  that  in  this  western  bulwark  of  the  Empire 
there  are  men  as  ready  to  stand  by  her  as  were  her  men  at  Waterloo.  It  is  not  for  us 
to  be  pessimists,  but  to  have  undying  faith  in  British  power  and  steadily  to  maintain  the 
integrity  of  her  Empire.  I  hope  that  the  present  strife  may  soon  pass,  and  that,  at  its 
close,  Canadians  will  feel  that  they  have  done  their  duty  to  the  flag  that  has  protected  them 
and  under  whose  paternal  Government  they  have  prospered  in  the  past.  Their  motto 
should  be  '  Canada  and  the  Empire,  one  and  inseparable,  now  and  forever.'  ' ' 

The  men  despatched  from  Canada,  as  already  stated,  num- 
bered 3,cx)0  altogether.  They  included  the  Royal  Canadian  Regi- 
ment under  Colonel  Otter,  the  Canadian  Mounted  Rifles,  Strath- 
cona's  Horse  and  some  Batteries  of  Field  Artillery.  The  ist  Bat- 
talion of  the  Rifles  was  commanded  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  F.  L. 
Lessard,  the  2nd  Battalion  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  L.  W.  Herchmer 
and  afterwards  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  T.  B.  D.  Evans.  Strath- 
cona's  Horse  was  commanded  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  S.  B.  Steele 
and  the  Field  Artillery  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  C.  W.  Drury.  They 
were  all  good  officers  and  Colonel  Otter,  especially,  won  a  high 
reputation  for  the  efficiency  and  discipline  of  his  Regiment,  the  largest 
distinct  Canadian  body  at  the  front.  The  men  of  all  these  forces 
saw  much  service  and  experienced  much  privation.  The  Royal  Cana- 
dian Regiment,  or  portions  of  it,  shared  in  the  skirmish  at  Sunnyside, 
in  the  far  more  important  battles  around  Paardeberg  and  in  the  capture 
of  Cronje. 

For  their  gallantry  in  this  latter  fight,  the  impetus  which  they 
gave  to  the  Boer  general's  surrender  and  the  position  they  took  and 
held  beside  the  greatest  historic  regiments  of  the  Mother-land,  the 
Canadians  won  immediate  and  lasting  fame.  Lord  Roberts  eulogized 
them  publicly,  cables  of  congratulation  came  to   Canada  from  the 


558  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

Queen  and  Lord  Wolseley,  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Sir  Alfred  Milner 
and,  as  it  were  in  an  hour,  Canada  appeared  to  take  its  proper  place 
in  the  defence  system  of  the  Empire.  These  things  do  not  really 
happen  in  such  an  instantaneous  fashion  but,  as  the  roar  of  explosion 
follows  the  making  of  the  cannon,  the  manufacture  of  its  powder  and 
shot  and  its  loading  in  an  effective  manner,  so  the  charge  of  the 
Royal  Canadians  at  Paardeberg  revealed  to  the  world  in  a  moment 
the  existence  of  that  unity  of  sentiment  and  Imperial  loyalty  which 
had  been  developing  for  years  in  the  backwoods  and  cities  of 
Canada  or  in  the  bush  and  the  civic  centres  of  Australia. 

The  Regiment  took  part  in  the  famous  march  to  Bloemfontein 
and  in  the  further  campaign  toward  Kroonstadt  and  Johannesburg 
into  Pretoria.  They  were  brigaded  with  the  Gordons  and  other 
Highland  regiments  for  a  time  and  were  then  placed  in  the  19th 
Brigade  under  Major-General  H.  L.  Smith-Dorrien  who,  on  July  i6th 
issued  an  official  Order  of  historic  interest  in  which  he  stated  that  : 
"The  19th  Brigade  has  achieved  a  record  of  which  any  infantry 
might  be  proud.  Since  the  date  it  was  formed,  namely,  the  1 2th  of 
February,  it  has  marched  620  miles,  often  on  half  rations  and  seldom 
on  full.  It  has  taken  part  in  the  capture  of  ten  towns,  fought  in 
ten  general  actions  and  on  twenty-seven  other  days.  In  one  period 
of  thirty  days  it  fought  on  twenty-one  of  them  and  marched  327 
miles.  The  casualties  have  been  between  four  and  five  hundred  and 
the  defeats  niiy  Meanwhile,  the  Canadian  Mounted  Rifles  had  been 
attached  to  Sir  Redvers  Buller's  force  and  under  the  more  immediate 
command  of  Major-General  E.  T.  H.  Hutton.  They  took  part  and, 
later  on  the  Strathcona's,  in  the  conflicts  and  incidents  of  the  march 
from  Natal  to  Pretoria  and  the  North  and  upon  several  occasions  won 
distinofuished  mention  from  their  commanders. 

One  of  those  incidents  which  brightened  this  war  by  its  evidences 
of  heroism  was  the  holding  of  an   advanced  post  at  Horning  Spruit 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  559 

by  four  men  of  "  D."  Squadron,  Mounted  Rifles,  against  some  fifty 
Boers.  Two  of  them  were  killed  and  two  wounded  but  the  post  was 
held.  General  Hutton  in  afterwards  writing  Lord  Minto  (on  July 
2,  1900)  described  the  action  as  showing  "gallantry  and  devotion  to 
duty"  of  a  high  order,  and  went  on  to  say  that  the  North-West  Mounted 
Police — to  which  these  men  had  originally  belonged — "  have  been 
repeatedly  conspicuous  in  displaying  the  highest  qualities  required  of 
a  British  soldier  in  the  field."  The  "  C."  Battery  of  the  Royal  Canadian 
Artillery  had,  meantime,  been  sent  round  by  way  of  Beira  and  Portu- 
guese territory,  through  Rhodesia,  to  join  Colonel  Plumer's  Column 
In  the  relief  of  Mafeklng.  With  a  Queensland  Contingent  they 
shared  In  the  hardships  of  a  long  and  difficult  journey  and  arrived  at 
Mafeklng,  after  a  brilliant  march  of  thirty-three  miles,  just  In  time  to 
contribute  materially  to  the  rescue  of  Its  heroic  little  garrison. 
They  had  journeyed  from  Cape  Town,  by  sea  and  land,  over  3,000 
miles,  In  thirty-three  days — partly  by  ship,  partly  by  marching,  partly 
by  mule  waggons  and  partly  by  train. 

Individual  Incidents  of  bravery  were  numerous  In  all  the  Contin- 
gents and  the  losses  by  death,  or  wounds,  and  the  suffering  from 
enteric  fever  or  other  diseases  very  great.  Private  R.  R.  Thompson 
of  the  Royal  Canadian  Regiment  won  the  Queen's  Scarf — one  of 
which  Her  Majesty  had  specially  knitted  for  a  representative  of  each 
of  the  four  chief  external  portions  of  her  Empire.  Sergeant  A.  H. 
L.  Richardson  of  Strathcona's  Horse  was  awarded  the  Victoria  Cross 
for  gallantry  In  action.  Captain  H.  M.  Arnold  of  the  Royal 
Canadians  died  from  wounds  received  while  leading  his  men  at  Paar- 
deberg.  Lieutenant  H.  L.  Borden,  son  of  the  Minister  of  Militia, 
and  Lieutenant  J.  E.  Burch  of  St.  Catharines,  were  killed  while  lead- 
ing their  men  with  pronounced  bravery  in  another  action.  Lieuten- 
ant M.  G.  Blanchard  of  the  Royal  Canadians,  and  who  afterwards 
joined  the   Derbyshlres,  Lieutenant  F.  V.  Young  of    the    Mounted 


56o  THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA 

Rifles,  Captain  C.  A.  Hensleyof  the  2nd  Dublin  Fusiliers,  Lieutenant 
J.  W.  Osborne  of  the  Scottish  Rifles,  Lieutenant  C.  C.  Wood  of 
the  North  Lancashires,  and  Lieutenant  J.  L,  Lawlor  of  the  6th 
Inniskilling  Dragoons  were  amongst  the  other  Canadians  killed  in 
the  war.  In  September,  1900,  when  the  struggle  was  drawing  to  a 
close,  the  Canadian  casualties  of  killed,  or  who  had  died  of  wounds 
or  disease,  were  123. 

Others  had  distinguished  themselves  in  different  ways.  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel E.  P.  C.  Girouard  of  the  Royal  Engineers,  in  charge  of 
railway  construction,  and  assisted  latterly  by  Lieutenants  A.  E.  Hod- 
gins  and  C.  J.  Armstrong;  Lieutenant  C.  W.  W.  McLean,  who  was 
appointed  A.  D.  C.  on  the  staff  of  Sir  H.  E.  Colville  and  granted  a 
commission  in  the  Royal  Artillery  ;  Captains  H.  B.  Stairs  and  A.  H. 
Macdonell,  specially  mentioned  by  Colonel  Otter  for  personal  gal- 
lantry;  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  L.  Biggar  and  Major  J.  C.  McDougall 
— the  one  D.  A.  A.  G.  for  Canada  at  Cape  Town  and  the  other  for 
Railway  Transport ;  Lieutenant  A.  C.  Caldwell,  in  charge  of  the 
mapping  section  of  the  Intelligence  Department ;  Lieutenant-Colonel 
W.  D.  Gordon  of  Montreal,  who  acted  as  D.  A.  A.  G.  for  Austral- 
asia ;  the  Rev.  P.  M.  O'Leary  of  Quebec,  the  Roman  Catholic  Chap- 
lain of  the  Royal  Canadians  who  did  much  for  the  sick  and  wounded — 
often  under  fire — are  some  of  those  who  had  heavy  and  responsible 
duties  given  them  or  became  prominent  in  various  phases  of  service. 
Lieutenant-Colonel  G.  Sterling  Ryerson,  who  went  to  the  front  as 
Canadian  Red  Cross  Commissioner  did  some  service  and  received 
appointment  as  a  British  Red  Cross  Commissioner  and  many  subse- 
quent marks  of  appreciation  from  those  in  authority.  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  Samuel  Hughes  who,  on  account  of  his  early  insubordination, 
did  not  receive  the  regular  appointment  which  would  otherwise  have 
been  his,  went  out  to  South  Africa  upon  his  own  responsibility  and 
was  given   an  opportunity  to    redeem  himself  by  appointment  to  a 


THE  SOUTH  AFRICAN  WAR— IMPERIALISM  IN  CANADA  561 

command  under  Sir  Charles  Warren.  He  showed  bravery  and  skill  in 
the  irregular  warfare  of  the  moment,  but  seriously  lost  reputation  by 
the  letters  which  he  sent  home  and  by  continued  bitter  attacks  upon 
the  Governor-General  and  General  Hutton. 

Such  is  the  story  of  the  share  taken  by  Canada  and  Canadian 
troops  in  this  eventful  struggle.  It  was  an  important  share  and  one 
entirely  out  of  proportion  to  the  number  of  men  sent  to  the  front 
from  the  Dominion.  To  compare  the  3,000  Canadians  in  South 
Africa  with  the  15,000  volunteers  contributed  by  Cape  Colony,  the 
5,000  given  by  little  Natal,  or  the  8,000  sent  from  Australasia, 
indicates  this  fact.  But  the  assertion  of  a  new  and  great  principle  of 
Imperial  defence  ;  the  revolution  effected  in  methods  of  war  by  the 
proved  and  superior  mobility  of  Colonial  forces  in  the  contest ;  the 
actual  achievements  of  the  men  themselves  in  steadiness,  discipline 
and  bravery  ;  reveal  ample  reasons  for  considering  the  participation  of 
Canada  in  this  war  as  one  of  the  great  events  of  its  history.  The  con- 
duct of  all  the  Colonial  troops  was,  indeed,  such  as  to  win  general 
praise  and  to  thoroughly  warrant  the  statement  in  the  Queen's  Speech 
at  the  opening  of  the  British  Parliament  on  August  8th,  1900,  that 
the  war  "  has  placed  in  the  strongest  light  the  heroism  and  high  mili- 
tary qualities  of  the  troops  brought  together  under  my  banner  from 
this  country,  from  Canada,  Australasia  and  my  South  African  Pos- 
sessions." 


30 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

A  Review  of  Popular  Progress 

IN  a  country  where  the  traditions  of  the  people  have  been  chiefly 
those  of  other  and  older  lands  ;  where  the  history,  until  within  a 

few  generations  of  time,  has  been  one  of  internal  conflict  between 
rival  races  and  foreign  flags ;  where  the  modern  events  of  develop- 
ment in  a  constitutional  direction  and  in  material  welfare  have  been 
controlled  by  the  slowly-merging  antagonisms  of  race  and  religion  ; 
the  growth  of  liberty  and  the  matured  practice  of  self-government 
have  naturally  afforded  room  for  interesting  and  stirring  experiences. 
Add  to  these  considerations  vast  and  almost  unknown  areas,  immense 
difficulties  of  transportation  and  trade,  the  competition  of  a  great 
southern  neighbour  of  not  always  friendly  tendencies,  the  continued 
arrival  throughout  half  a  century  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  people 
with  diverse  tastes  and  politics  and  various  degrees  of  knowledge  or 
ignorance,  and  the  position  grows  in  interest  and  importance. 

With  the  nineteenth  century  commenced  the  constitutional  his- 
tory of  Canada.  To  the  British  subject  and  elector  of  the  end  of  that 
century  it  is  difficult  to  clearly  comprehend  the  situation  in  those 
olden  days.  Newspapers  were  so  few  as  to  be  of  little  influence. 
Books  were  scarce,  valuable,  and  of  a  character  not  calculated  to 
throw  light  upon  existing  problems.  The  people  of  Lower  Canada 
were  wrapped  up  in  the  traditions  and  surroundings  of  many  years 
before  and,  under  the  British  flag,  were  fondly  nursing  the  ideas  and 
ideals  of  Old  France  in  the  days  of  Louis  XIV.  ;  of  New  France  in 
the  days  of  Montcalm  and  the  earlier  period  and  glories  of  Frontenac. 

The  people  of  the   English    Provinces   were  still   little   more   than 

562 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  563 

isolated  pioneer  settlers  steeped  in  the  shadowed  memories  of  a  past 
struggle  for  King  and  institutions  and  country ;  embittered  against 
all  republican  or  democratic  tendencies ;  prejudiced,  naturally  and 
inevitably,  against  the  Radicals  of  England  who  had  helped  to  ruin 
the  Royal  cause  in  the  Thirteen  Colonies  and  against  the  French  of 
Quebec  who  had  been  so  long,  the  traditional  enemies  of  England 
and  the  sincere  foes  of  British  supremacy  in  North  America.  To 
them,  all  new-comers,  whether  the  later  Loyalists  from  the  States,  or 
immigrants  of  subsequent  years  from  the  Old  Land,  were  subjects  of 
suspicion  as  being  possibly  alien  in  origin,  or  indifferent  in  sentiment 
to  their  own  sacrifices  and  their  own  sacred  political  beliefs.  To  the 
French-Canadians,  all  immigrants  were  equally  undesirable  as  being 
practically  certain  to  possess  religious  and  racial  differentiation  from 
themselves. 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    CANADIAN    PARTIES 

Into  this  peculiar  mass  of  varied  interests  and  antagonistic  feel- 
ings came  the  leaven  of  a  constitutional  and  Parliamentary  system.   It 
did  not  develop  from  within.      It  was  not  the  result  of  popular  evolu- 
tion or  even  of  popular  desire.     The  French-Canadians  accepted  it 
as  an  external  part  of  their  new  situation,  a  political  appanage  to  the 
Conquest ;  while  the  Loyalists  of  the  other  Provinces  did  not  really 
want  it  and  would  probably  have  been  quite  satisfied  for  many  years 
to  come  with  able  Governors  and  reasonably  efficient  local  advisers. 
Still,  the  latter  knew  how  to  use  it  when  received  and  were  more  or 
less  familiar  with  the  underlying  principles  of  a  Legislature  and  free 
government.      When,  however,  increasing  population  brought  varied 
political  sentiments  and  personalities  into  conflict  with  the  Loyalists, 
the  inevitable  result   followed  and  a  dominant   class  found   itself  in 
collision  with  a  dominating  people  who  cared  more    for  the  present 
than  the  past,  more  for  phantasms  of  liberty  than  memories  of  loyalty, 
more   for  a  share  in  the  government  of  the  country  than  for  abstract 


564 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 


justice  to  the  men  who  had  in  great  measure  made  the  country.  In 
Lower  Canada,  as  elsewhere  pointed  out,  the  Legislature  soon  became 
merely  a  weapon  of  offence  against  everything  British  ;  and  the  exter- 
nal institution  foisted  upon  a  people  who  understood  autocracy  better 
than  the  simplest  principle  of  freedom  and  who  had  not  even  practiced 
the  most  rudimentary  elements  of  municipal  self-government  was 
adapted  to  the  exigencies  of  racial  feeling  with  a  facility  which  reflects 
credit  upon  French-Canadian  quickness  of  perception  while  fully  illus- 
trating the  racial  prejudices  of  the  people.  Out  of  these  conditions 
came  the  Rebellion  of  1837,  the  troubles  of  1849,  and  the  struggles 
of  the  "  Sixties." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  Toryism  was  dominant ;  at  the 
end  of  the  century  democracy  governs.  Which  was  the  better? 
The  average  writer  will  unhesitatingly  say  that  the  rule  of  the  people, 
by  the  people,  is  the  accredited  dictum  of  his  age  and  the  only  just 
principle  of  government.  But  the  admission  of  the  fact  that  popular 
rule  is  wise  and  right  in  1900  does  not  interfere  with  a  perception 
that,  under  vastly  different  conditions,  other  forms  and  systems  in 
1800  may  also  have  been  wise  and  proper  for  the  time  being.  The 
government  by  a  class  in  the  English  Provinces  and  in  days  when 
that  class  represented  the  loyal  and  pioneer  population  of  the  country, 
and  ruled  it  in  accordance  with  the  hereditary  sentiments  of  the  major- 
ity was  not  in  itself  unjust  in  practice  or  despotic  in  principle.  The 
resistance  of  that  class  to  innovation  and  democracy  was  natural  and 
probably  wise  at  a  time  when  these  things  meant  American  ideas  and 
the  dangers  of  American  propaganda  in  a  small  and  weak  community. 
The  rule  of  a  few  leading  families  of  experience  and  knowledge  in 
days  of  scattered  settlers  and  isolated  homes  and  general  poverty  was 
in  itself  a  benefit.  In  Lower  Canada  the  English  settlers  were  the 
only  class  trained  in  the  self-government  which  had  been  meted  out 
in  a  measure  as  large  as  was  thought  to  be  safe  and  wise  and  which 


k 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  567 

was  really  too  large  for  the  occasion.  They  were  the  only  element, 
outside  of  a  few  Seigneurs,  who  were  in  any  way  fitted  for  adminis- 
tration and  justice  and  the  making  of  impartial  laws — as  the  subse- 
quent adventures  of  the  French  Assembly  clearly  prove. 

Moreover,  if  this  class  Government  of  1800  was  a  selfish  one  in 
some  respects  it  was  not  any  more  so  than  a  partisan  Government  in 
1900  would  be.  If  it  chose  associates  from,  and  filled  appointments 
with,  its  relatives  and  friends,  the  sin  was  no  greater  than  that  of  any 
Canadian  Government  of  a  hundred  years  later.  If  it  fought  strenu- 
ously and  sincerely,  in  all  the  Provinces,  for  British  institutions  as  then 
understood  and  for  the  British  connection  which  it  regarded  as  a  child 
does  its  mother,  who  is  there  in  1900  that  can  throw  stones  at  it? 
Faults  and  flounderings  there  were  in  the  Toryism  of  1800,  but  if  we 
measure  it  in  accordance  with  its  pioneer  surroundings  and  limited 
resources  we  must  conclude  that  those  results  were  no  more  serious  in 
bulk  or  consequences  than  are  the  faults  and  flounderings  of  the  democ- 
racy of  1900.  And,  between  the  two,  lie  a  hundred  years  of  struggle 
and  evolution,  of  growing  wealth  and  increased  popular  intelligence. 

CANADIAN    POLITICAL    LEADERS 

The  leaders  of  the  century,  the  rulers  of  the  people,  have,  how- 
ever, greatly  changed  in  character  and  scope  of  culture  as  the  coun- 
try has  slowly  broadened  out  from  Colonies  into  Provinces,  from 
Provinces  into  a  Dominion,  from  a  Dominion  into  a  British  nation. 
The  early  leaders  of  the  Canadas  such  as  William  Smith,  Jonathan 
Sewell,  John  Beverley  Robinson  and  Isaac  Allen  were  steeped  to  the 
lips  in  memories  of  the  Thirteen  Colonies  and  the  Revolution. 
Later  Tory  leaders  such  as  Bishop  Strachan,  Sir  Allan  N.  McNab, 
William  Henry  Draper,  Henry  Sherwood  and  William  Cayley  were 
equally  instinct  with  the  traditions  of  English  public  life  as  found  in 
the  pages  of  history  and  the  knowledge  of  Canadian  adherents. 
Many  of  these  men  were  cultured  gentlemen  in  the  best  English  sense 


568  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

of  the  word,  as  were  also  Robert  Baldwin,  Francis  Hincks  and  such 
French-Canadians  as  Sir  L.  H.  Lafontaine,  Sir  A.  A.  Dorion  and  Sir 
E.  P.  Tache.  They  strove  to  imitate  English  manners  and  customs 
as  far  as  possible  and  many  leaders  of  French  extraction  added  a 
most  useful  element  of  courtesy  and  grace  to  the  politics  and  social 
life  of  the  young  and  struggling  community.  On  the  other  hand 
many  of  the  French-Canadian  leaders  of  the  first  half  of  the  century 
were  steeped  in  the  traditions  of  French  life,  the  affiliations  of  French 
literature  and  the  elements  of  French  thought.  They  followed  the 
democracy  of  republican  France — with  a  dash  of  republican  America 
as  one  of  the  constituents  of  theory  and  policy.  Canada  as  a  national 
entity  was,  of  course,  not  in  existence  and  the  culture  of  the  mixed  com- 
munity was,  therefore,  either  French  or  English,  with  a  strong  addi- 
tional independent  element — as  the  years  advanced  toward  the  begin- 
ning of  the  second  half  of  the  century — of  something  that  was  purely 
American  in  style  and  type. 

In  the  year  1900  it  is  almost  a  question  which  of  all  these  ele- 
ments is  uppermost  in  the  peculiar  condition  of  affairs  embodied  in 
the  name  Canadian,  There  is  a  strong  and  pronounced  Canadian 
sentiment  amongst  the  people  which  has  largely  overcome  and 
destroyed,  in  their  politicians  and  leaders,  the  extraneous  tendencies 
of  opinion  known  as  French,  or  English,  or  American.  At  the  same 
time  the  bulk  of  the  population  is  British  in  its  loyalty  and  increas- 
ingly Imperialistic  in  opinion — a  sentiment  grading  upwards  from  the 
passiveness  of  Quebec  to  the  enthusiasm  of  Toronto,  or  Victoria,  or 
Halifax.  The  culture  of  the  community  has  become,  nominally,  a 
local  culture.  It  chiefly  emanates  from  local  Universities  and  in  poli- 
tics is  made  to  fit  local  feelings.  But  the  general  tendency  has  been 
to  make  this  culture  American  in  style  and  character.  Canadian  Uni- 
versities are  largely  affected  by  American  influences,  as  is  the  whole 
educational  system  of  the  country.     The  press  is  American  in  type 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  569 

and  utterly  opposed  in  principles  of  management  to  the  English 
model.  The  politics  of  the  Dominion  are  run  upon  lines  about  half- 
way between  the  antagonistic  systems  of  Great  Britain  and  the  Uni- 
ted States.  The  speech,  manner  and  style  of  its  public  men  are 
essentially  American  and  the  social  character  of  the  community  more 
nearly  approximates  to  that  type  than  to  any  other. 

Canadian  leaders  of  the  last  half  of  the  century  have  been  very 
different  in  type  from  their  fellow-leaders  at  the  heart  of  the  Empire. 
Few  of  them  have  even  had  the  culture  of  old-time  gentlemen  such  as 
Robinson  or  Sewell.  None  of  them  have  shown  the  varied  accom- 
plishments now  so  common  amongst  the  statesmen  of  Great  Britain 
where  a  Salisbury  is  devoted  to  science,  a  Rosebery  has  written  one 
of  the  most  eloquent  little  books  of  the  century,  a  Balfour  has  won 
fame  as  a  philosophic  writer  and  a  Gladstone  has  distinguished  him- 
self in  almost  innumerable  fields  of  attainment.  Lack  of  time  and 
the  fact  of  having  to  make  a  living  when  out  of  office,  together  with 
the  receipt  of  small  salaries  when  in  office,  are  the  real  reasons  for 
this  condition  of  affairs.  In  England  it  is  an  every-day  matter  for 
some  leading  public  man  to  speak  at  length,  and  with  evident  learn- 
ing, upon  questions  of  literature,  art,  sociology,  philosophy,  and  the 
progress,  or  otherwise,  of  all  the  varied  elements  of  a  complex  civili- 
zation. ,As  yet  Canada  has  not  approached  this  level  though  signs 
have  not  been  wanting  toward  the  end  of  the  century  that  the 
Dominion  is  slowly  growing  upwards  in  culture  as  in  other  matters. 
And,  even  now,  it  is  greatly  superior  in  the  style  of  its  public  men  to* 
the  position  of  Australasian  leaders. 

In  other  respects  Canadian  leaders  differ  from  those  of  earlier 
years.  With  all  their  wider  outlook  and  the  Imperial  position  which 
the  Dominion  has  latterly  attained  they  still  remain  somewhat  narrow 
in  conception  while  the  necessity  of  conciliating  rival  races  and  reli- 
gions has  developed  an  extreme  opportunism.    The  latter  quality  has  '. 


570  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

come  to  them  in  part  from  over  the  American  border ;  in  part  from 
the  peculiar  nature  of  the  mixed  Canadian  democracy ;  in  part  from 
the  brilliant  example  in  details  and  methods,  though  not  really  in 
principles,  of  Sir  John  A.  Macdonald.  The  British  practice  of  hold- 
ing certain  political  convictions,  in  office  or  out  of  it,  and  of  willingly 
surrendering  power  if  anything  happens  to  change  those  convictions, 
has  not  prevailed  in  Canada  to  anything  like  a  general  extent  since 
the  days  of  responsible  government.  Sir  John  Macdonald,  it  is  true, 
had  certain  defined  and  prominent  principles — British  connection,  pro- 
tection, opposition  to  American  union  of  any  kind — but  outside  of 
these  he  was  quite  willing  to  modify  his  opinions  in  order  to  forward 
the  interests  of  his  party.  It  was  not  so  in  the  earlier  days  of  Canada; 
it  is  not  so  in  the  later  days  of  England  where  a  Hartington,  or 
Bright,  or  Chamberlain,  has  sacrificed  his  party  feelings  and  associa- 
tions and  apparent  future  in  order  to  oppose  the  new  and  dangerous 
proposals  of  a  great  popular  leader  such  as  Gladstone. 

Still,  the  politics  of  Canada,  with  all  their  admitted  elements  of 
weakness  do  not,  at  the  end  of  the  century,  merit  pessimistic  consid- 
eration. Sir  John  Macdonald  may  have  been  an  opportunist  in  minor 
matters,  but  it  is  more  than  probable  that  Canada  would  not  be  a 
national  unit  and  a  power  in  the  Empire  to-day  if  he  had  not  combined 
opportunism  with  the  higher  methods  of  statesmanship.  Sir  John 
Thompson,  during  his  nine  years  of  Dominion  public  life,  gave  the 
country  a  career  of  sterling  honesty  and  won  a  reputation  for  political 
integrity  which  deserves  the  appreciation  of  posterity  as  it  certainly 
conferred  credit  upon  the  Dominion  of  his  too-brief  day.  Sir  Leo- 
nard Tilley  combined  undoubted  personal  honour  with  rare  qualities 
of  speech  and  manner  and  heart. 

Sir  Oliver  Mowat,  during  his  almost  quarter  of  a  century  of 
Premiership  in  the  Province  of  Ontario,  displayed  qualities  of  tact 
and   conciliation    which    rose  to   the   level    of    statesmanship.      Sir 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  571 

Adolphe  Chapleau,  during  his  long  career  in  the  poHtics  of  Quebec 
and  Canada,  developed  a  character  that  was  curiously  compounded  of 
political  selfishness  and  indifference  to  some  of  the  higher  principles 
of  public  life,  with  an  eloquence  which  was  so  great  as  to  stamp  him 
a  born  leader  of  men.  Sir  Charles  Tupper  has  contributed  to  Canadian 
history  an  element  of  force,  a  character  of  determination,  and  a  career 
of  consistent  political  labour  which  marks  him  out  as  a  man  worthy 
of  high  place  in  any  country's  Valhalla  of  eminence.  The  Hon. 
George  Eulas  Foster  has  given  to  the  later  years  of  Dominion  politics 
an  eloquence  of  speech  and  debate  which  it  is  difficult  to  find  the 
equal  of  in  Canadian  history — unless  it  be  the  case  of  Joseph  Howe. 
Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier,  the  first  Liberal  Premier  of  Canada  since  the 
days  of  Mackenzie,  is  an  undoubted  opportunist  in  politics,  but  he  is 
also  one  of  the  most  picturesque  figures  in  the  public  life  of  the 
Empire.  Handsome,  eloquent  in  French  and  English,  graceful  in 
manner  and  bearing,  cultured  in  language  and  attainment,  he  is  a  man 
of  whose  personality  the  country  has  reason  to  be  proud.  Sir  Richard 
Cartwright  is  of  a  very  different  type,  and  one  of  the  very  few  Cana- 
dian politicians  whose  oratory  approximates  to  the  English  style  and 
whose  references  and  similies  indicate  wide  knowledge  and  reading. 

Upon  the  whole  it  is  apparent  that,  while  Canadian  politics  are 
on  a  lower  level  than  those  in  England,  they  are  upon  a  much  higher 
plane  than  in  the  United  States  or  Australia.  It  is  also  clear  that, 
while  political  leaders  have  changed  greatly  from  the  type  of  rulers 
living  in  the  beginning  of  the  century  and  have  not  yet  developed 
the  culture  of  older  lands  and  wider  opportunities,  they  have  managed 
to  more  than  hold  their  own  upon  this  continent  and  are  now,  at 
the  end  of  the  century,  rapidly  developing  along  lines  of  politcal 
action  which  must,  more  and  more,  bring  them  into  touch  with  the 
world-wide  interests,  politics  and  rule  of  the  Mother-land.  This  will 
probably  produce  a  higher  form  of  political  life  and  individual  culture 


572  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

in  the  future,  though  its  attainment  must  be  preceded  by  the  creation 
of  a  more  truly  Canadian  press  and  the  establishment  of  a  news  system 
which  does  not  leave  the  daily  intellectual  food  of  the  Canadian  peo- 
ple in  American  hands,  or  British  and  Imperial  public  affairs  to  be 
dealt  with  from  a  naturally  alien  and  unsympathetic  point  of  view. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF    EDUCATION 

During  the  century  which  constitutes  the  developing  period  of 
Canadian  history,  as  distinct  from  its  picturesque  and  military  periods, 
education  has  gone  through  various  stages  of  growth.  In  Quebec  it 
was  at  first  essentially  a  religious  and  ecclesiastical  system,  controlled 
by  priests  and  nuns  and  institutions  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Church.  Much  of  it  was  of  the  higher,  or  collegiate,  type  and 
intended  primarily  for  the  training  of  religious  teachers.  The  attempts 
at  establishing  a  general  school  system  prior  to  the  Rebellion,  in 
1837,  were  tentative  and  feeble,  even  amongst  the  small  English 
population  ;  and  such  schools  as  were  in  existence  met  with  disaster 
in  the  times  of  trouble  immediately  preceding  and  succeeding  the 
insurrection.  The  teachers  of  the  day  were  needy  and  illiterate,  the 
supervision  careless  and  dishonest,  the  school-houses  dirty  and,  in 
winter,  very  cold,  the  children  unprovided  with  books,  and  the  parents 
singularly  indifferent.*  After  the  union  with  Upper  Canada  legisla- 
tion of  various  kinds  and  degrees  of  value  followed  and,  between 
1853  ^^d  1861,  the  pupils  in  Lower  Canadian  educational  institutions 
of  all  kinds  increased  from  108,000  to  180,000  and  the  assessments 
and  fees  for  their  support  rose  from  $165,000  to  $526,000. 

Meanwhile,  the  Roman  Catholic  religious  bodies  of  the  Province 
had  increased  greatly  in  educational  strength  and  efficiency — especi- 
ally the  higher  institutions  of  instruction.  They  possessed  at  least 
2,000,000  acres  of  land,  some  of  it  in  the  heart  of  Montreal  and 
other  growing  centres,  which  developed  wealth  by  every  year's  growth 

•  Arthur  BuUer.    Report  upon  Education  in  the  Province  of  Quebec.    1838. 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  573 

of  the  country.  Colleges  for  this  kind  of  teaching  were  founded 
at  Quebec,  Montreal,  L'Assomption,  Joliette,  Levis,  Nicolet,  Rigaud, 
Rimouski,  Ste.  Anne,  St.  Hyacinthe,  St.  Laurent,  Rouville,  Terre- 
bonne, and  other  places.  In  1854  Laval  University  was  inaugurated 
at  Quebec  and  later  on  was  also  established  in  Montreal.  From  its 
scholastic  halls  have  come  most  of  the  rulers  and  leaders  of  French 
Canada  since  that  time.  Three  years  later  Normal  Schools  were 
established  for  the  training  of  teachers  and  in  1854  a  Council  of  Public 
Instruction  was  organized  with  eleven  Catholics  and  four  Protest- 
ants in  its  membership.  Out  of  this  development  came  a  common 
or  public  school  system  which  slowly  improved  until,  in  1875 — eight 
years  after  Confederation  when  education  had  been  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  Provincial  Governments — legislation  initiated  by  M.  de 
Boucherville,  along  the  lines  which  had  been  slowly  evolved  by  Dr. 
Jean  Baptiste  Meilleur  and  the  Hon.  P.  J.  O.  Chauveau  in  two  pre- 
ceding decades,  established  the  existing  system. 

At  the  end  of  the  century  this  system  is  notable  as  having 
been  created  in  a  Province  dominated  by  one  race  and  religion  and 
yet  conceived  and  practiced  in  almost  perfect  fairness  toward  the 
minority.  The  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction  has  usually  held 
office  for  many  years  in  succession  and  has  been  fairly  independent  of 
political  parties.  The  Catholic  and  Protestant  elements  of  the  popu- 
lation have  separate  Sections  of  the  Council  of  Public  Instruction 
and  they  administer  the  funds  provided  so  as  to  suit  the  different 
ideas  and  ideals  of  their  people.  The  Province  boasts  of  seventeen 
colleges  founded  and  maintained  by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy.  It 
has  McGill  University  as  the  centre  of  its  English-speaking  education 
during  fifty  years — much  of  the  time  under  the  administration  and  man- 
agement of  the  late  Sir  William  Dawson — and  now  developed  into  one 
of  the  great  Universities  of  the  British  Empire.  The  standard  of  super- 
ior education  in  the  Province  is  high  ;  the  standard  of  education  in  its 


574  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

more  preliminary  forms  is  improving  ;  the  teaching  Orders  of  women 
who  instruct  pupils,  numbering,  in  1896,  over  37,000,  in  domestic  econ- 
omy as  well  as  in  ordinary  accomplishments,  are  doing  most  useful 
work ;  the  number  of  children  attending  schools  of  all  kinds  has 
increased  from  212,000  in  1867  to  307,000  in  1897. 

In  the  other  Provinces  there  has  been  no  racial  division  amongst 
the  people,  but  there  were,  at  first,  the  inevitable  difficulties  of 
pioneer  life,  poverty  of  resource  and  distances  in  space.  Isolation 
and  lack  of  money  produced  paucity  of  schools  everywhere  and  poor- 
ness of  teaching  wherever  they  did  exist.  Dr.  John  Strachan,  Bishop 
and  politician  and  polemist,  was  practically  the  pioneer  of  educa- 
tion in  Upper  Canada.  Out  of  his  school  at  Cornwell  came  the 
leading  men  of  the  early  days  and  from  his  conception  of  sectarian, 
or  Church  of  England  education,  came  greater  institutions  of  learn- 
ing in  Toronto — the  Upper  Canada  College,  King's  College,  which 
was  afterwards  secularized  as  the  University  of  Toronto,  and  Trinity 
College,  which  he  then  established  as  an  educational  centre  for  his 
cherished  Church. 

Contemporary  with  him  in  part,  and  living  and  working  after  him, 
was  Dr.  Egerton  Ryerson,  the  modern  organizer  of  the  public  school 
system  of  Ontario,  the  vigorous  and  devoted  champion  of  popular 
education  and  common  schools.  At  first,  in  Upper  Canada  and  down  by 
the  Atlantic,  as  in  Quebec,  instruction  in  its  simpler  forms  was  greatly 
neglected.  Long  after  the  people  had  passed  out  of  their  pioneer  posi- 
tion and  the  excuse  of  poor  roads  or  no  roads,  and  of  poverty,  or  lack  of 
public  organization,  was  removed  from  valid  consideration,  they  seemed 
to  remain  indifferent,  in  all  the  English  Provinces,  to  the  education  of 
children  and  to  be  much  more  inclined  to  lavish  money  and  attention 
upon  Colleges  and  higher  branches  of  learning.  The  log  school- 
house  of  early  days,  the  painfully  inadequate  accommodation  for 
the  pupils,  the  ignorant  and  sometimes  intemperate  teachers,  remained 


TKE  HON.  SIR  CHARLES  TUPPER,  BART.,  G.C.M.G.,  C  B. 

Seventh  Prime  Minister  of  Canada 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  577 

public  evils,  in  at  least  the  two  latter  particulars,  well  up  to  the  end  of 
the  first  half  of  the  century.  Gradually  and  eventually,  a  change  for  the 
better  took  place.  Dr.  Ryerson  worked  wonders  in  Upper  Canada. 
His  School  Act  of  1850,  followed  by  the  establishment  of  Separate 
Catholic  Schools  in  1862,  laid  the  foundation  of  the  existing  system 
which  the  sweeping  legislation  of  1871  altered  greatly  in  detail  with- 
out affecting  seriously  in  principle. 

In  1876  the  important  change  was  made  of  placing  the  Education 
Department  in  charge  of  a  responsible  member  of  the  Provincial 
Government  and,  between  that  time  and  1883,  it  was  under  the  control 
of  the  Hon.  Adam  Crooks.  His  successor  was  the  Hon.  George  W. 
Ross  who  held  the  position  until  his  accession  to  the  Premiership  of 
the  Province  in  1899.  Progress  from  the  middle  of  the  century 
onwards  had  been  very  marked.  Between  1850  and  1871  the  teachers 
in  the  public  schools  increased  by  2,000  in  number  and  the  attendance 
of  pupils  by  100,000.  Between  the  latter  date  and  1896  the  teachers 
increased  from  5,306  to  8,988  and  the  average  attendance  of  pupils 
from  188,000  to  271,000.  More  important  still,  perhaps,  the  standard 
of  education  grew  better  and  better  until  the  public  schools  were 
fully  established  in  a  position  of  equality  with  other  departments  of 
study  and  as  part  of  a  great  educational  chain  in  which  the  links  were 
the  elementary  or  public  schools,  the  high  schools,  the  normal  schools 
for  teachers,  the  Colleges  and  Universities. 

Sectarian  higher  education  Kad,  meanwhile,  grown  greatly  in 
popularity  and  power  in  Ontario.  Besides  the  University  of  Toronto 
which  was  secular  in  its  control  and  instruction,  though  originally 
sectarian,  and  Trinity  College,  which  was  Anglican  in  support  and 
policy;  the  Presbyterians  had  started  Knox  College  at  Toronto  and 
Queen's  University  at  Kingston — the  latter  a  notable  institution  in 
the  concluding  quarter  of  the  century  under  the  control  of  Princi- 
pal George  Monro  Grant  ;  the  Methodists  founded  Albert  College  at 


578-  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

Belleville,  which,  in  time,  joined  with  Victoria  College  of  Cobourg, 
as  a  federated  institution  and  later  on  became  Victoria  University  of 
Toronto  ;  the  Baptists  established  McMaster  University  in  Toronto  ; 
and  the  Roman  Catholics  founded,  in  succession,  Regiopolis  College 
at  Kingston  and  the  University  of  Ottawa  at  Ottawa. 

In  the  Maritime  Provinces  early  conditions  were  very  similar  to 
those  of  Upper  Canada  or  Ontario.  There  was  the  same  poverty  in 
school  arrangements  and  paucity  in  teaching  talent  or  training.  There 
was  the  same  indifference  shown  amongst  the  masses  of  the  people 
toward  elementary  education  and  the  same  tendency  among  the  rulers 
and  upper  classes  to  promote  higher  education  and  collegiate  institu- 
tions. King's  College  at  Windsor,  Nova  Scotia,  was  organized  as  far 
back  as  1788;  the  University  of  New  Brunswick  was  founded  at 
Fredericton  in  the  first  year  of  the  century ;  Dalhousie  University 
was  established  at  Halifax  under  the  auspices  of  the  Earl  of  Dal- 
housie in  182 1  ;  Acadia  College,  Wolfville,  was  formed  in  1838,  as 
the  educational  centre  of  the  Baptists  and  as  a  protest  against  the 
Church  of  England  associations  of  all  the  other  Colleges.  Mount 
Allison  College,  Sackville,  N.  B,,  was  founded  by  the  Methodists  in 
1843  ^"^  the  Presbyterian  College  at  Halifax  in  1820.  In  Nova 
Scotia,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Thomas  McCulloch  and  in  New  Brunswick,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Edwin  Jacob  did  continuous  and  splendid  service  to  this 
cause  of  higher  education.  The  elementary  system  developed  more 
slowly.  Nova  Scotia  possessed  only  217  schools  and  5,514  pupils  in 
1824,  spent  upon  them  less  than  $50,000  and  voted  down  more  than 
one  measure  for  taxing  the  people  in  their  support.  In  1850,  how- 
ever, Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  J.  W.  Dawson  was  appointed  the  first 
Superintendent  of  Education  in  the  Province.  Progress  then  became 
more  rapid  and  improved  methods  of  teaching  and  plans  of  building 
were  developed.  He  was  succeeded  in  1855  t>y  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alex- 
ander Forrester  and,  in  1864,  the  Hon.  Dr.  Tupper  introduced  in  the 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  579 

Legislature  of  Nova  Scotia  his  famous  measure  establishing  free 
schools  and  a  general  public  assessment  for  their  maintenance.  He 
fought  the  Bill  through  successfully  but  the  unpopularity  of  the  direct 
taxation  involved  defeated  him  at  the  ensuing  elections. 

The  system,  however,  was  established  and,  under  the  succeeding 
management  of  the  Rev.  A.  S.  Hunt,  Dr.  Theodore  H.  Rand,  Dr.  David 
Allison  and  Dr.  Alexander  H.  MacKay,  became  eminently  successful. 
The  number  of  teachers  rose  from  916  in  1865  to  2,438  in  1896,  the 
average  daily  attendance  of  pupils  from  23,572  to  53,023,  the  popular 
assessment  for  expenses  from  $124,000  to  $450,000,  the  Provincial 
grant  from  $87,000  to  $242,000.  The  Council  of  Public  Instruction  is 
composed  of  five  members  of  the  Government  and  the  Superintendent 
of  Education  is  a  non-political  administrator  of  the  Department  under 
their  general  control.  Separate  schools  have  never  been  organized  in 
Nova  Scotia  under  Provincial  auspices,  although  the  Catholics  have  an 
efficient  system  of  higher  education  including  St.  Francois  Xavier 
College  at  Antigonish  and  the  College  of  Ste.  Anne  at  Church  Point. 

In  New  Brunswick,  for  many  years  after  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  teachers'  salaries  remained  so  small  and  the  position  was  so 
undignified — as  a  result  of  the  universal  custom  in  pioneer  Canada 
of  "  boarding  around  "  at  the  houses  of  the  school  patrons  so  as  to 
eke  out  meagre  remuneration — that  good  men  would  have  nothing  to 
do  with  the  profession.  As  late  as  1845  teachers'  wages  averaged  $125 
a  year  in  this  Province  and  much  of  that  miserable  sum  was  not  paid  in 
cash.  In  this  year,  however,  matters  seem  to  have  come  to  a  head,  a 
Committee  of  the  Legislature  was  appointed  to  investigate  the  con- 
dition of  education  in  the  Province  and  two  years  later  an  effort  was 
made  to  establish  an  organized  system.  In  1852  a  Superintendent  was 
appointed  and  in  1858  further  legislation  took  place.  But  it  appeared 
impossible  to  change  the  apathy  and  indifference  of  the  people. 
Though  they  were  fighting  bitter  sectarian  contests  over  Universities 


58o  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

and  Test  Acts  and  higher  education  they  refused  to  take  any  interest 
in,  or  tax  themselves  for,  the  elementary  teaching  of  their  children. 

In  1 87 1,  therefore,  it  was  decided  to  establish  free  schools  and 
Compulsory  attendance  and  to,  at  the  same  time,  abolish  all  religious 
teaching.  This  latter  action  was  a  distinct  blow  to  the  Catholic 
Separate  Schools  which  had  practically  developed  and  was,  of  course, 
strongly  resented  by  the  people  of  that  Church.  The  measure  passed, 
however,  and  stands  as  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  Hon.  George  E. 
King,  then  Premier  of  the  Province  and  afterwards  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  at  Ottawa,  as  does  the  preceding  establishment  of  free 
schools  in  Nova  Scotia  to  the  credit  of  Sir  Charles  Tupper.  The 
system  is  much  the  same  as  in  the  latter  Province  and  has  been  pre- 
sided over  since  1871  by  Dr.  Theodore  H.  Rand,  William  Crocket 
and  Dr.  James  R.  Inch.  From  1872  to  1897  the  number  of  schools 
increased  from  884  to  1737,  the  teachers  from  918  to  1829,  and  the 
pupils  from  39,000  to  61,000. 

In  little  Prince  Edward  Island  conditions  were  not  different  in 
early  times  from  those  in  the  larger  Provinces  and  it  was  not  until 
1825  that  its  first  Education  Act  was  passed.  The  year  1852  saw 
the  establishment  of  a  free  school  system  and,  in  i860,  the  Prince  of 
Wales'  College  was  opened  at  Charlottetown.  There  were  121 
schools  in  1841  and  531  in  1891  ;  4,356  pupils  in  the  former  year  and 
22,138  in  the  latter.  To  sum  tip  the  situation  in  these  Provinces  it 
maybe  said  that  everywhere  prior  to  Confederation  similar  conditions 
existed  and  everywhere  the  same  beneficial  results  have  since  followed 
the  establishment  of  free  schools,  the  formation  of  Normal  Schools 
for  the  training  of  teachers,  the  taxation  of  the  people  for  educational 
matters,  their  enforced  interest  in  school  affairs  and  the  elevation  and 
increased  dignity  given  to  the  teaching  profession. 

Development  along  these  lines  in  the  North-West  and  British 
Columbia   was  naturally  an    affair  of    comparatively   recent  times. 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  581 

Such  education  as  there  was  in  earlier  days  came  through  the  devoted 
activities  of  pioneer  missionaries  such  as  the  ministers  of  the  Red 
River  Settlement,  Fathers  Tache  and  Provencher,  the  Rev,  John 
West,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Black,  and  many  others  who  spread  them- 
selves in  a  thin  line  of  labour  and  self-sacrifice  over  a  vast  extent  of 
territory  stretching  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  Manitoba  the  system! 
since  1890  has  been  a  free  school  and  undenominational  one.  There  ' 
were  sixteen  Protestant  schools  in  1877  and  seventeen  Catholic  schools 
and,  in  1890,  these  had  increased  to  628  and  91  respectively.  Since 
the  new  system  was  inaugurated  considerable  progress  has  been 
made  and,  in  1897,  there  were  1018  public  schools  with  an  expendi- 
ture of  $810,000.  The  system  in  the  Territories  includes  a  Council  of 
Public  Instruction  of  a  somewhat  mixed  character  and  of  very  recent 
formation.  There  are  four  members  of  the  Government  upon  the 
Council  and  four  appointed  members  from  outside — two  Protestants 
and  two  Catholics.  Progress  has  been  excellent,  especially  in  view  of 
the  immense  areas  under  Territorial  jurisdiction,  and  the  schools  in 
operation  have  increased,  between  1886  and  1896,  from  76  to  366; 
the  enrolled  pupils  from  2,553  to  12,796;  the  teachers  from  84  to  433 
and  Legislative  expenditure  from  $8,900  to  $126,000. 

British  Columbia  had  practically  no  educational  system  prior  to 
1872.  Up  to  that  time  both  the  earlier  efforts  of  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  on  Vancouver  Island  and  the  later  ones  of  the  Legislature 
had  been  unsuccessful.  The  Public  School  Act  of  the  year  men- 
tioned, however,  established  a  defined  system  which  was  improved  by 
legislation  in  1879,  1891,  and  1896.  There  is  a  Minister  of  Educa- 
tion as  well  as  a  Superintendent  of  Education,  but  the  general 
character  of  the  arrangements  are  not  materially  different  from  those 
in  other  Provinces.  In  1872  there  were  25  school  districts  which  had 
increased  to  193  in  1896  ;  an  average  daily  attendance  of  575  as 
against  one  of  9,254  ;  an  expenditure  of  $36,000  as  against  $204,000. 
31 


583  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

There  are  a  large  number  of  Indian  schools  in  the  Province  under 
denominational  control  and,  though  it  is  without  a  University, 
the  Roman  Catholics  have  two  Colleges  for  boys  and  various 
Academies,  while  the  Methodists  have  a  College  at  New  Westmin- 
ster. The  only  University  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific  is  the  University  of  Manitoba  at  Winnipeg.  It  originated, 
practically,  from  the  Anglican  Red  River  Academy  of  pioneer  days 
and  was  organized  in  1877  with  University  powers  and  as  a  federated 
institution  which  included  St.  John's  College,  (the  old-time  Academy) 
Manitoba  College  under  Presbyterian  auspices,  the  College  of  St. 
Boniface  under  Catholic  control,  and  Wesley  College  under  Methodist 
guidance.  Archbishop  Machray,  the  Anglican  Primate  of  Canada, 
has  been  its  Chancellor  for  many  years  and  has  had  much  to  do  with 
its  history  and  success. 

During  all  these  educational  developments  in  the  Provinces  the 
factor  of  sectarian  strife  has  had  a  more  or  less  pronounced  effect. 
In  Quebec  it  took  the  early  form  of  antagonism  between  the  hier- 
archy and  the  founders  of  McGill  University,  but  finally  mellowed 
down  into  a  condition  in  which  Laval  has  become  the  centre 
of  Catholic  higher  education  and  McGill  of  Protestant  attendance. 
Little  conflict  has  existed  in  modern  times  between  the  elementary 
school  sections  and  they  have  worked  quietly  along  their  own  dis- 
tinct and  marked  lines.  In  Ontario  the  earlier  struggles  were  between 
the  dominant  and  dominating  Church  of  England  which  desired 
— as  in  the  Mother-land — to  control  the  Universities.  This  desire 
led  to  the  long  political  conflict  over  the  constitution  and  functions  of 
King's  College,  or,  as  it  afterwards  became,  the  University  of  Toronto. 
It  also  caused  the  formation  of  various  denominational  Colleges  and 
Universities.  A  later  struggle,  in  the  years  preceding  Confederation, 
was  fought  over  the  Catholic  desire  for  Separate  Schools — a  wish 
which  was  realized  in  the  legislation  of  1862  and  chrystalized  in  the 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  583 

pact  of  Confederation  and  the  subsequent  amendments  of  the 
Mowat  Government.  In  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  struggle  for 
supremacy  in  educational  matters  by  the  Church  of  England  resulted 
in  a  division  of  forces  and  opinion  which  led  to  the  foundation  of 
Dalhousie  University  in  antagonism  to  King's  College  and  the  creation 
of  Acadia  College  in  opposition  to  both.  The  Mount  Sackville 
institution  was,  in  the  same  way  a  New  Brunswick  protest  against  the 
original  Anglicanism  of  its  University  at  Fredericton.  The  conflicts 
were  bitter  and  eventually  went  against  the  Church  of  England 
principle,  but,  instead  of  resulting  in  a  unified  system  of  secular 
higher  education  in  each  of  the  Provinces,  as  should  logically  have 
been  the  case,  it  has  simply  caused  the  multiplication  of  denomina- 
tional colleges  at  the  expense  of  the  now  secularized  older  institutions 
and  at  the  expense,  in  many  cases,  of  general  efficiency  and  success. 

RELIGIOUS    HISTORY    AND    PROGRESS 

The  religious  progress  of  Canada  since  pioneer  days  is  a  subject 
of  fascinating  interest.  It  has  worked  in  different  ways  into  the  very 
warp  and  woof  of  Canadian  history  and  finds  a  place,  through  denomi- 
national rivalry,  in  almost  every  Canadian  branch  of  popular  develop- 
ment. In  Quebec,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  guided  and  modified 
and  controlled  the  institutions  of  the  Province,  the  habits  and  customs 
of  the  French  race,  the  morals  and  politics  and  loyalty  of  the  people. 
It  helped  Lord  Dorchester  to  save  the  country  to  the  Crown  in  1776  ; 
it  supported  Great  Britain  with  strenuous  efforts  in  181 2  ;  it  modified 
and  checked  the  revolutionary  movement  of  1837;  it  stood  by  the 
proposals  for  Confederation  in  1867;  it  largely  backed  up  the  Con- 
servative party  in  its  principles  of  expansion  and  protection  and  rail- 
way development  up  to  1891  ;  it  opposed  the  movement  in  favour  of 
Commercial  Union  with  the  United  States.  It  had  a  place  in  the 
Jesuits  Estates  question,  a  pronounced  share  in  the  Riel  issue,  an 
important  part  in  the  New  Brunswick  School  question  and  a  still  more 
vital  share  in  the  Manitoba  School  matter. 


584  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

The  Church  of  England  in  all  the  English  Provinces  was  a  domi- 
nant power  in  earlier  days,  an  influence  for  loyalty  to  the  Crown,  for 
education  in  the  love  of  British  institutions,  for  adherence  to  rule  by  a 
governing  Loyalist  class,  for  devotion  to  the  policy  of  British  Gover- 
nors. It  held  a  high  place  in  the  Government  of  all  the  Provinces — not 
excepting  Catholic  Quebec — prior  to  the  Rebellion  ;  it  had  a  strong; 
interest  in  the  stormy  question  of  the  Clergy  Reserves  ;  it  held  a 
vigorous  position  in  matters  of  education ;  it  did  much,  in  co-operation 
with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  to  pioneer  Western  religious  activ- 
ities; it  was  for  half  a  century  the  Church  of  the  classes,  the  support  of 
old-time  Toryism,  the  strength  of  a  social  system  which  was  not  with- 
out great  benefit  to  a  new  community  and  crude  conditions  of  life. 

The  Methodist  denomination  had  a  pronounced  place  in  the 
hearts  of  later  settlers  from  the  United  States  and  the  United  King- 
dom. It  was  the  early  root  and  home  of  Canadian  radicalism,  the 
centre  of  opposition  to  Toryism,  the  embodiment  of  steady  and  severe 
missionary  labours,  the  cause  of  bitter  political  controversy  in  educa- 
tional matters  and  in  such  political  issues  as  the  Clergy  Reserves.  It 
held  intimate  associations  with  American  Methodism  and,  up  to  1812,  a 
great  part  of  its  ministers  were  American  while  its  polity  and  princi- 
ples and  preaching  were  also  American  in  style  and,  too  often,  in 
advocacy  and  patriotism.  After  the  war,  when  many  of  its  pulpits 
were  vacated  by  American  citizens  returning  to  their  own  country, 
the  English  element  became  predominant  and,  in  1828,  the  Canadian 
Methodist  Conference  was  finally  declared  independent  of  the  Ameri-' 
can  Church.  It  had  many  ups  and  downs  after  this  time  and  was 
divided  upon  political  issues  in  later  years  by  Dr.  Egerton  Ryerson, 
but  always,  and  everywhere  in  the  Provinces,  it  continued  to  exercise 
a  strong  influence  in  public  affairs. 

Presbyterianism  was  never  such  a  political  factor  as  were  the 
three  divisions  of  Christianity  just  referred  to.      Its  polity  was  too 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  587 

severe  in  tone  and  practice  and  its  ministers  too  conservative,  in  a 
non  partisan  sense,  to  constitute  what  might  be  termed  a  semi-political 
denomination.  Methodism  was  essentially  a  militant  and  missionary  de- 
nomination in  Canadian  history ;  Presbyterianism  was  more  of  a  strong, 
pervading  influence  among  men  of  a  single  nationality.  Its  divisions 
,were  not  so  numerous  as  in  the  other  case  and,  prior  to  the  Disruption 
in  Scotland,  the  "  Kirk  "  often  stood  side  by  side  with  the  Church  of 
England  as  a  silent  factor  for  the  preservation  of  old  traditions  and  in 
simple  antagonism  to  democratic  innovation.  The  chief  political  issue 
with  which  it  was  mixed  up  was  that  of  the  Clergy  Reserves,  just  as 
the  one  public  question  in  which  the  "strong  Baptist  denomination  of 
the  Maritime  Provinces  was  concerned  was  that  of  secular  education. 

In  all  these  religious  divisions  the  controversies  of  the  Old  Land 
were  reproduced  with  more  or  less  fidelity.  The  Church  of  England 
disputed  in  the  latter  half  of  the  century  over  forms  and  ceremonies 
of  High  or  Low  Church  practice  just  as  they  did  in  England. 
Methodism  was  divided  into  the  Primitive  Methodist  Church,  the 
Bible  Christian  Church  and  the  Wesleyan  Methodist  Church,  while 
its  American  affiliations  and  Canadian  position  brought  into  existence 
the  New  Methodist-Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  New  Con- 
nexion. Presbyterianism  had  its  Church  of  Scotland  in  Canada,  its 
Free  Church  Synod,  its  Presbyterian  Church  of  the  Lower  Provinces, 
its  United  Presbyterian  Church,  its  Canada  Presbyterian  Church. 

If,  however,  the  denominations  shared  in  the  shaded  differences 
of  thought  and  creed  which  came  to  them  from  the  Old  Land,  they 
also  shared,  immensely  and  beneficially,  in  the  financial  benefactions 
of  the  British  Churches  and  of  the  great  missionary  Societies  ;  while 
the  Church  of  England  received  large  sums  from  the  British  Parlia- 
ment well  on  into  the  nineteenth  century.  Up  to  1833,  when  a  gradual 
reduction  was  begun,  the  Imperial  Parliament  granted  ;i^  16,000  a  year 
for  the  maintenance  of  this  Church   in  British   America  and  many 


588  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

Other  sums  were  paid  from  time  to  time.  The  Society  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge  was  indefatigable  in  its  missionary  work  and 
spent  large  sums  in  extending  the  Episcopate,,  endowing  missionary 
clergy,  and  aiding  struggling  parishes  in  the  different  Provinces.  The 
Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  was  more  than  a  benefactor,  it 
was  almost  the  parent  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Canada.  Its 
expenditure  between  1703  and  1892  in  British  America  was  $8,930,- 
925  and  from  1820  to  1865  its  annual  expenditure  seldom  went  below 
$100,000.  The  Church  Missionary  Society  was  another  staunch  sup- 
porter of  Anglicanism  in  Canada.  The  various  Methodist  Churches 
were  also  largely  aided  by  funds  from  London  and  their  early  English 
missionaries  were  almost  entirely  supported  from  that  source.  So 
with  the  Presbyterian  denominations  and  the  well-known  Glasgow 
Colonial  Society  and  its  practical  work  between  1825  and  1840. 

The  progress  2ind. personnel  of  these  Churches  have  a  most  inter- 
esting record — the  former  because  of  the  light  it  throws  upon  general 
religious  conditions,  the  latter  because  of  the  influence  it  had  upon 
public  development  and  affairs.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  holds 
the  chief  place  in  numbers  as  well  as  in  length  of  historic  association 
with  Canadian  soil.  As  the  French  population  of  Quebec  has 
increased,  so  have  its  adherents,  and  with  this  increase  has  come  a 
similar  expansion  and  expression  of  missionary  zeal  in  the  far  West 
and  in  all  the  Provinces.  The  Catholic  population  of  Quebec  in  1 783 
has  been  placed  at  113,000  by  the  Church  itself.  In  1830  it  was  at 
least  half  a  million,  with  about  50,000  in  Upper  Canada.  In  1851 
the  Church  had  746,854  adherents  in  Lower  Canada  ;  in  1871,  just 
after  Confederation,  it  had  1,019,850;  and  in  1891  1,291,709.  In 
Ontario,  its  adherents  numbered  in  the  years  mentioned  167,695,  274,- 
166  and  358,300  respectively.  In  the  three  Maritime  Provinces  of 
Nova  Scotia,   New  Brunswick  and   Prince  Edward  Island  it  had,  at 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  589 

nearly  the  same  periods*  181,561,  238,459  and  286,250  adherents. 
The  Western  figures  are  of  recent  date  and  show  that  in  Manitoba, 
the  Territories  and  British  Columbia  the  total  Catholic  population  in 
1881  was  26,000  in  round  numbers,  and,  in  1891,  53,000.  This  gives  a 
round  total,  for  what  is  now  the  Dominion,  of  1,080,000  Roman  Catho- 
lics in  1 85 1,  1,530,000  in  187 1,  and  2,000,000  in  1891 — an  increase  of 
half  a  million  in  every  two  decades. 

The  leaders  of  the  Church  during  this  period  have  had  much  to 
do  with  its  success.  In  Quebec  the  militant  Laval  and  loyal  Plessis 
were  succeeded  by  a  series  of  eminent  men  of  whom  Archbishops 
Turgeon  and  Baillargeon  of  Quebec,  Cardinal  Taschereau,  the  first 
Canadian  Prince  of  his  Church,  and  Archbishops  Bourget  and  Fabre 
of  Montreal,  were  perhaps  the  chief.  Bishop  Guigues  of  Ottawa, 
Mgr.  Provencher  and  Archbishop  Tache  of  Manitoba,  Archbishops 
Lynch  and  Walsh  of  Toronto,  Archbishop  Cleary  of  Kingston,  Arch- 
bishops Connolly  and  O'Brien  of  Halifax,  Mgr.  McKinnon  of  Anti- 
gonish,  and  Bishop  Demers  of  Vancouver  Island,  were  the  most  repre- 
sentative successors  of  Macdonell  and  Burke  and  others  of  pioneer 
days.  An  important  incident  of  ecclesiastical  history  in  Canada  in 
this  connection  has  been  the  influence  exercised  by  the  Pope,  at  times, 
over  its  affairs.  In  1877  Mgr.  George  Conroy  was  sent  out  to  the 
Dominion  as  an  Apostolic  Ablegate  to  arrange  the  long-standing  dis- 
putes between  Laval  University,  in  Quebec,  and  its  branch  in  Mont- 
real. In  1888,  Mgr.  Smueldres  was  despatched,  largely  in  connection 
with  the  same  troubles  and  partly  to  soothe  certain  Diocesan  difficul- 
ties. Mgr.  Raffaele  Merry  del  Val  was  sent  in  1897  to  report  upon 
the  Manitoba  School  question  and  to  prevent  further  agitation 
amongst  the  hierarchy  if  it  should  seem  desirable.  In  1899,  ^g^- 
Diomede  Falconio  was  appointed  in  a  more  permanent  capacity  to 
act,  apparently,  as  the  Pope's  adviser  upon  Canadian  affairs. 

•  The  earliest  figures  obtainable  in  New  Brunswick  are  for  1861  and  in  Prince  Edward  Island,  for  1848.    This  stat^ 
ment  also  applies  to  the  statistics  given  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 


590  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

Meanwhile,  the  great  Protestant  denominations  had  been  expand- 
ing in  various  directions  under  the  most  strenuous  exertions  by  their 
leaders.  The  Church  of  England  was  led  in  Quebec  by  such  heroes 
of  the  missionary  field  as  Bishop  Jacob  Mountain,  Bishop  George  J. 
Mountain  and  Bishop  Charles  James  Stewart  and  by  such  religious 
organizers  as  Dr.  Williams  and  Dr.  Fulford — the  latter  the  first 
Metropolitan  of  Canada.  In  Ontario,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Stuart  and  the 
strenuous  personality  of  Bishop  Strachan,  were  prominent.  In  the 
Maritime  Provinces,  Dr.  Charles  Inglis,  the  first  Colonial  Bishop 
and  whose  See  for  a  time  included  all  British  America,  Dr.  John 
Inglis,  also  Bishop  of  Nova  Scotia,  Dr.  Hibbert  Binney,  Bishop  of 
the  same  Province,  and  Dr.  John  Medley,  Bishop  of  Fredericton 
during  forty-seven  years,  worked  steadily  in  the  foundation  and  devel- 
opment of  the  Church.  So  with  Bishop  Anderson  and  Archbishop 
Machray  at  Fort  Garry  and  Winnipeg,  Bishop  Horden  in  the  far- 
away Territories,  Bishop  Sillitoe  in  British  Columbia  and  Bishop 
Bompas  in  the  distant  Yukon. 

Methodism  in  Canada  boasts  pioneer  labourers  such  as  William 
Case,  James  Richardson,  Henry  Ryan,  John  Reynolds,  John  Davison, 
Egerton  Ryerson,  John  Carroll,  Anson  Green,  William  Black — men 
of  immense  energy,  deep  spiritual  enthusiam  and  the  highest  powers 
of  endurance.  In  later  and  quieter  days  the  Church — which  became  one 
great  united  body  from  ocean  to  ocean  in  1883 — boasted  scholars 
and  orators  such  as  Dr.  Mathew  Richey,  Dr.  Enoch  Wood,  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Morley  Punshon,  Dr.  George  Douglas,  Dr.  S.  D.  Rice,  Dr.  J.  A. 
Williams,  Dr.  Albert  Carman,  Dr.  W.  H.  Withrow.  Presbyterianism  in 
its  personnel  has  hardly  had  the  same  pioneer  variety  of  attainment, 
except  in  the  cases  of  Dr.  James  McGregor  in  Nova  Scotia,  Dr.  John 
Cook  in  Quebec  and  Dr.  John  Black  in  the  far  West.  In  later  days  men 
of  great  ability  or  learning  such  as  Dr.  Alexander  Mathieson,  Dr. 
Robert  Burns,  Dr.  Alexander  Topp,   Dr.  John  Jenkins,  Dr.  William 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  591 

Reid,  Dr.  William  Gregg,  Dr.  J.  M.  King,  Dr.  William  Caven  and  Dr. 
Alexander  MacKnight  appeared  on  the  scene.  The  actual  and  statis- 
tical progress  of  these  three  great  Churches  since  missionary  days  can 
be  seen  at  a  glance  from  the  following  three  tables : 

I.       THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND 

1851  1871  1891 

Ontario 223,190  ....  330,995  ....  3^5.999 

Quebec 44,682  ....    62,449  ....     75.472 

Maritime  Provinces  .    85,421  ....  107,844  ....  114,151 


353,293  501,288  575,622 

The  Western   Provinces  increased  from  2  5,ocx)  Anglican  adher- 
ents in   1 88 1  to  68,000  in  1891. 

II.       THE    METHODIST    DENOMINATION 

1851 

Ontario 213,365  .  . 

Quebec 21,199  •  • 

Maritime  Provinces  .     54,164  .  . 


I87I 

I89I 

462,264 

.  .  .  654,033 

34,100 

.  .  .  39,544 

81,797 

.  .  •  103,295 

288,728       578,161       796,872 

The  Western  figures  were  13,000  in  1881  and  51,000  in  1891. 

III.       PRESBYTERIANISM 

1851 

Ontario 204,148  .  . 

Quebec 33, 47©  .  . 

Maritime  Provinces  .129,158  .  . 


I87I 

I89I 

.  356,442 

.  .  453»i47 

.  46,165 

•  .  .  52,673 

.  171,970 

.  .  .  182,483 

366,776  574,577  688,303 

The  increase  in  the  West  was  from  19,000  in  1881  to  67,000  in 
1 89 1.  From  these  and  preceding  figures  it  is  seen  that,  in  round 
numbers,  the  Roman  Catholic  faith  increased  its  adherents  in  all  the 
Canadian  Provinces  between  1851  and  1891,  by  1,000,000  souls,  the 
Church  of  England  by  290,000,  the  Methodist  denomination  by  460,- 
000,  and    the    Presbyterian    Church  by  388,000.     It   will  be  seen, 


592  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

incidentally,  that  the  Church  of  greatest  prominence  and  influence  in 
early  English-speaking  Canada,  has  made  the  least  comparative 
progress  of  all  the  chief  divisions  of  Christianity  in  the  country  dur- 
ing the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  ;  and  it  will  also  be  easily 
perceived  how  large  a  place  the  progress  of  Roman  Catholicism  gives 
that  faith  in  the  population  of  the  Dominion. 

LITERARY    AND   JOURNALISTIC    PROGRESS 

Literature  has  not  wielded  a  very  great  influence  in  the  history 
of  Canada.  The  earlier  settlers  had  to  pay  almost  undivided  atten- 
tion to  their  activities  in  field  and  forest,  on  lake  and  river.  The  axe 
of  the  settler,  the  rafts  of  the  lumberman,  the  canoe  of  the  voyageur, 
the  musket  of  the  hunter,  embodied  the  practical  and  necessary  aims 
of  the  people.  Later  on  they  developed  keen  political  proclivities 
and  the  press  and  the  pamphlet  took  the  place  of  books  and  what  is 
generally  regarded  as  literature.  There  were  a  few  prominent  names, 
and  a  few  works  which  have  lived,  and  they  are  chiefly  found  amongst 
the  French-Canadians.  They  had  cultivated  poetry  and  music  and  song 
and  the  lighter  graces  of  life  long  before  such  developments  had 
penetrated  the  forests  of  Ontario  or  the  Atlantic  wilderness.  Char- 
levoix, Bibaud,  Ferland,  Faillon,  De  Gaspe,  Gerin-Lajoie,  must  be 
mentioned.  Robert  Christie  and  Henry  H.  Miles  in  Quebec,  John 
Mercier  McMullen  in  Ontario,  Murdoch,  Campbell,  Gesner  and  Archer 
in  the  Maritime  Provinces,  were  historians  who  did  good  work  in  the 
English  language.  Then  came  the  period  brightened  by  the  pen  of 
Thomas  Chandler  Haliburton,  the  inimitable  "  Sam  Slick,"  the 
founder  of  a  distinct  school  of  humour,  the  best  known  of  Canadian 
writers  up  to  very  recent  times. 

Canadian  literature  became  voluminous  after  the  middle  period 
marked  by  the  pens  of  Henry  J.  Morgan,  W.  J.  Rattray,  Alpheus  Todd, 
Edmund  Collins,  John  Charles  Dent,  George  Stewart,  Heavysege, 
Sangster  and  McLachlan.     Dr.  William  Kingsford  as  an  historian, 


A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS  593 

Sir  John  George  Bourinot  as  a  constitutional  authority  and  historian, 
Charles  G.  D.  Roberts  as  a  poet  and  novelist,  Archibald  Lampman 
and  W.  Wilfrid  Campbell  as  poets  of  high  quality,  William  Kirby  as 
author  of  Le  Chien  U  Or,  Sara  Jeanette  Duncan,  Lily  Dougall,  Robert 
Barr,  William  McLennan,  S.  Francis  Harrison,  as  novelists,  Louis 
Frechette  as  the  chief  of  French-Canadian  poets,  Gilbert  Parker  as 
one  of  the  world's  novel  writers,  Benjamin  Suite,  Lieutenant-Colonel 
George  T.  Denison,  Dr.  George  R.  Parkin,  all  hold  marked  places  in 
the  literary  life  of  Canada,  There  are  very  many  more  who  might 
and  should  be  mentioned  in  poetry,  science,  biography  and  history,  and 
all  the  varied  branches  of  literature,  but  enough  have  been  given  to 
indicate  that  Canada  in  this,  as  in  other  respects,  has  grown  out  of  the 
Colonial  stage  and  taken  its  place  in  the  stream  of  the  world's  contri- 
bution to  published  thought  and  fancy,  expression  and  fact. 

In  journalism  Canada  has  hardly  held  its  place  in  comparison 
with  other  branches  of  development.  It  always  has  excelled  in  vigour 
and  force  of  expression,  but  has  failed  in  culture  and  breadth  of  view. 
Some  of  its  historic  names  are  those  of  Joseph  Howe,  George  Brown, 
Egerton  Ryerson,  Francis  Hincks,  William  Annand,  William  Elder, 
John  Livingston,  Etienne  Parent,  J.  B.  E.  Dorion,  Mederic  Lanctot, 
Joseph  Doutrd,  J.  E.  Cauchon,  Ronald  Macdonald,  Raphael  Belle- 
mare,  Thomas  White,  John  Cameron,  John  Reade,  George  Murray, 
E.  Goff  Penny,  Peter  Mitchell,  John  Dougall,  David  Kinnear,  D'Arcy 
McGee,  William  Lyon  Mackenzie,  James  Lesslie,  William  McDougall, 
Hugh  Scobie,  George  Sheppard,  Daniel  Morrison,  Samuel  Thompson, 
J.  Gordon  Brown,  T.  C.  Patteson,  William  Fisher  Luxton,  Nicholas 
Flood  Davin,  D.  W.  Higgins  and  John  Robson.  From  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific  these  names  range  up  through  the  stormy  politics  of  a 
century.  Many  of  the  men  mentioned  became  also  eminent  in  other 
spheres  and  all  possessed  distinct  ability. 


594  A  REVIEW  OF  POPULAR  PROGRESS 

But  distance  from  the  high  standards  of  British  journalistic  life  ; 
proximity  to  the  sensationalism  of  the  United  States  press  ;  develop- 
ments arising  from  localism  of  character  and  narrowness  of  view ; 
lack  of  capital  and  a  large  constituency ;  tended  to  greatly  weaken 
the  influence  and  standing  of  Canadian  newspapers  and  to  hamper 
the  true  and  best  progress  of  the  press.  Toward  the  end  of  the  cen- 
tury these  causes  have  largely  passed  away  and,  though  much  room 
still  exists  for  improvement,  the  greater  newspapers  of  Canada  are 
creditable  to  the  ability  and  knowledge  of  those  in  charge.  When 
they  have  been  made  thoroughly  Canadian  in  fact  and  character  by 
the  creation  of  a  Canadian  news  service  in  Europe  and  a  declaration 
of  independence  from  American  news  agencies  there,  another  mile- 
stone on  the  path  of  progress  will  have  been  passed. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

The  Growth  of  National    Prosperity  , 

THE  Provinces  of  French  and  British  Canada  up  to  the  Conquest 
were  largely  fur-trading  communities.  Their  exports  were  the 
products  of  the  chase  or  of  the  skillful  labours  of  hunters  and 
trappers  in  the  wilds  of  the  West.  Under  the  French  regime,  and 
especially  from  1660  to  1760,  the  country  now  called  Quebec,  and 
stretching  far  down  into  the  heart  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  was  in 
the  hands  of  a  practically  close  corporation  which  controlled  the  trade 
and  taxes  and  distribution  of  all  products.  Special  monopolies  in  the 
fur-trade,  or  in  the  farming  of  the  revenues,  were  given  from  time  to 
time  by  the  French  King.  Such  conditions  had  a  naturally  restrictive 
and  injurious  effect  upon  individual  enterprise  and  the  progress  of  com- 
mercial interchange  was,  therefore,  seriously  retarded.  Parkman  tells 
us  that  in  1674,  for  instance,  merchants  not  residents  in  the  Colony 
"  were  forbidden  to  sell  any  goods  at  retail  except  in  August,  Sep- 
tember and  October ;  to  trade  anywhere  in  Canada  above  Quebec ; 
and  to  sell  clothing  or  domestic  articles  ready-made.  No  person, 
resident  or  not,  could  trade  with  the  English  Colonies  and  foreign 
commerce  of  any  kind  was  stiffly  prohibited."  In  1719,  the  authori- 
ties were  empowered  to  search  houses  for  foreign  goods  and  to  burn 
them  publicly,  while  ships  engaged  in  foreign  trade  were  to  be  treated 
as  pirates. 

When  Great  Britain  took  possession  of  the  country  in  1763  its 
trade  was,  consequently,  chiefly  confined  to  furs  and  the  products  of 
the  forest.  Agriculture  had  made  little  progress  and  manufac- 
tures were  non-existent — except  those  of  the  hand-loom  and  of  home 

597 


598  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

composition.  With  the  accession  of  British  rule  came  the  British  fiscal 
system.  Canadians  could  now  trade  freely  with  the  Thirteen  Colonies 
although  there  was  little  real  demand  for  commercial  exchange.  In 
addition  to  this,  all  British  possessions  were  governed  by  the  same 
Navigation  Laws  and  regulations  against  trading  with  foreign  coun- 
tries, or  in  foreign  vessels,  which  were  beginning  to  prove  so  irrita- 
ting to  the  men  of  the  Atlantic  sea-board.  Very  soon,  therefore, 
almost  the  entire  Canadian  trade  had  passed  from  the  hands  of  France 
to  the  hands  of  England.  By  1808  the  figures  for  Upper  and  Lower 
Canada  were  ^1,776,000  sterling,  of  which  the  greater  part  repre- 
sented British  business.  Furs,  wheat,  flour,  timber  and  fish  were  the 
chief  exports,  and  of  the  imports  ^200,000  were  manufactured  goods 
and  ^100,000  were  tea,  tobacco  and  provisions.  In  this  year  there 
were  333  vessels  engaged  in  the  external  trade  of  the  Provinces 
while,  in  1830,  967  vessels  arrived  at  the  port  of  Quebec  alone. 

During  these  years  and  up  to  1846,  the  Mother-land  gave  every 
possible  encouragement  to  Colonial  trade.   If  she  restricted  its  expan- 
sion in  foreign  channels  she  made  up  for  the  action,  and  more  than 
made  up  for  it,  by  tariffs  which  gave  immense  preferences  to  Cana- 
dian products  over  those  of  other  countries — lumber  over  that  of  the 
Baltic,  and  wheat  over  that  of  the  United  States,  for  instance.     In 
1845  the  Imperial  tariff  showed  a  preference  given  to  wheat  of  i8.y. 
charged  foreign  countries  as  against  2s.  to  5^.  charged  the  Colonies  : 
to  horses  and  oxen  of  21^.  as  against  \os.\  to  cheese  of  \\s.  as  against 
2S.  yd.     These  instances  might  be  indefinitely  extended.      In  the  fol- 
lowing year,  however,  the  Corn  Laws  and  the  Colonial  preferences 
were  alike   abolished  and,    after  a  preliminary  crash   and  prolonged 
depression,   the  fiscal    system  of  a   Provincial    revenue   tariff,    with 
touches  of  incidental  protection,  was  established  ;  Colonial  trade  was 
made  open  to  the  world  and  Colonial  tariffs  given,  by  a  sort  of  gradu- 
ally broadening  process,  into  the  control  of  Colonial  Governments. 


THE  GROWTH  OP  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  599 

Up  to  1878,  the  tariffs  of  the  Provinces  and  then  of  the  Dominion 
remained  largely  of  a  revenue  nature — with  the  exception  of  Mr. 
Gait's  policy  in  1 858-1 859  in  the  Canadas.  Since  1878  the  tariff  of 
Canada  has  been  a  protective  one,  pure  and  simple,  with,  however, 
a  preference  granted  to  British  goods  from  and  after  1898. 

INTER-PROVINCIAL    TRADE 

In  all  this  period,  and  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  quarter  in 
the  nineteenth  century,  there  was  little  real  trade  between  the  Provinces 
of  British  America.  The  North-West  and  the  Pacific  Coast  were 
hopelessly  barred  by  distance,  by  the  influence  of  a  great  corporation, 
and  by  geographical  obstacles,  from  the  Lake  and  Atlantic  Provinces. 
Lower  Canada  and  the  Maritime  Provinces  naturally  followed  the 
lines  of  least  resistance  and  of  tariff  encouragement  and  traded  with 
England.  Upper  Canada  exchanged  its  goods  and  products  in  a 
very  considerable  frontier  trade.  When  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  came, 
trade  developed  steadily  with  the  United  States  in  preference  to 
England  and  even  against  the  other  Provinces.  Tariffs  were  imposed 
by  the  Provinces,  from  the  time  of  the  abolition  of  the  Corn  Laws 
until  Confederation,  against  each  other.  It  was  natural,  therefore, 
that  during  the  Reciprocity  period  when  people  were  growing  rich  on 
American  trade  and  war  necessities  and  found  their  foreign  commerce 
jumping  up  by  leaps  and  bounds,  that  trade  between  Canada  and 
the  Maritime  Provinces  should  be  small  and  show  little  change — in 
1855  it  was  $1,889,428  and  in  1866  $2,429,038. 

'  Confederation  consequently  started  with  a  tiny  traffic  amongst  the 

Provinces  and  with  the  very  large  trade,  comparatively,  of  $75,000,000 
between  the  Provinces  and  the  American  Republic.  After  that  time, 
what  might  be  called  the  home  trade  grew,  but  very  slowly,  for  a 
decade.  Reciprocity  was,  of  course,  a  fact  as  between  the  various 
divisions  of  the  Dominion  and  in  vivid  contrast  to  the  previous  condi- 
tion of  reciprocity  with   a  foreign  country  and  Inter-Provincial  tariffs. 


6oo  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

But  the  new  Dominion  tariff  was  not  made  so  as  to  encourage  trade 
amongst  the  neighbouring  Provinces  and  it  still  tended  southward  to 
the  magnet  of  a  large  population  and  the  attraction  of  great  indus- 
tries which  steadily  expanded  as  the  time  of  war  and  strife  receded 
into  the  distance. 

A  Select  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  appointed 
in  1877  to  inquire  into  the  situation,  but  the  anti-protectionist  party 
was  still  in  power  and  the  Report  could  only  express  academic  wishes 
for  cheaper  transportation  and  increased  trade.  Then  came  the 
establishment  of  the  National  Policy  of  protection  and  the  building 
of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway.  Another  Committee  of  the  House 
was  appointed  in  1883  and,  after  exhaustive  inquiry,  they  reported 
that  the  purchases  of  the  Maritime  Provinces  had  increased  from 
$1,200,000  in  1866  to  $22,000,000  in  1882.  The  trade  in  fish  from 
Nova  Scotia  westward  had  "  developed  to  very  large  proportions 
and,  as  far  west  as  Montreal,  a  very  considerable  trade  is  already  done 
in  fish  and  oils  and  in  West  India  goods  and  coal." 

Exact  information,  either  then  or  now,  is,  however,  difficult  to 
obtain  upon  this  point.  There  are  no  tariffs  to  draw  upon  for  facts 
and  figures  have  to  be  largely  estimates.  But  we  know  that  from  this 
time  onward  the  business  between  the  Provinces,  both  east  and  west, 
greatly  and  steadily  increased.  Canadian  manufactured  goods  held 
their  own  home  market  from  Halifax  to  Vancouver  and,  as  the  country 
grew  in  population,  wealth  and  transportation  facilities,  the  value  of  this 
market  naturally  developed.  Iron  and  steel  manufactures  from  Nova 
Scotia  came  up  to  the  inland  Provinces.  Cotton  and  other  goods  of 
New  Brunswick  reached  the  markets  of  Ontario.  Farm  implements 
and  various  products  of  industrial  activity  from  Ontario  poured  into 
the  North-West.  Boots  and  shoes  from  Quebec  supplied  part  of  the 
Ontario  market.  The  fish  of  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  came  west  and 
east  in   expanding   quantities.     Nova  Scotia  coal  supplied   Quebec 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  6oi 

more  and  more  largely  and  Ontario  in  a  small  measure.  Indications 
of  this  increasing  Inter-Provincial  traffic  are  found  in  the  coasting 
trade,  which  grew  10,000,000  tons  in  volume  between  1887  and  1896; 
in  the  freight  carried  by  railways,  which  increased  8,000,000  tons 
during  the  same  period ;  in  the  shipments  of  food  products  sent 
from  Montreal  to  the  Maritime  Province  ports,  which  have  expanded 
very  largely  in  recent  years  ;  in  the  freight  carried  by  the  Inter-Colon- 
ial Railway,  which  grew  from  42 1,000  tons  in  1877  to  1,379,000  in  1896 
and  is  chiefly  Inter-Provincial  traffic.  While,  therefore,  estimates  only 
are  possible  in  bulk,  the  evidences  of  a  large  increase  in  this  internal 
trade  are  sufficiently  clear  to  warrant  Mr.  George  Johnson,  the 
Dominion  Statistician,  in  making  elaborate  calculations  and  deductions 
from  which,  in  1899,  he  placed  the  total  trade  interchange  amongst  the 
Provinces  at  $80,000,000,  Following  out  his  method  of  calculation  the 
figures  in  the  last  year  of  the  century  would  be  at  least  $125,000,000. 

DEVELOPMENT    IN    COMMERCE    AND    PRODUCTION 

Meanwhile,  external  trade  also  developed  largely.  The  impetus 
eiven  to  commerce  with  the  United  States,  and  to  the  use  of  American 
transportation  facilities,  by  the  abolition  of  the  British  preference  and 
the  operation  of  the  Reciprocity  Treaty,  was  checked  by  the  abroga- 
tion of  the  latter  measure,  affected  in  some  limited  degree  by  Con- 
federation, and  finally  nullified  by  the  adoption  of  a  Canadian  pro- 
tectionist tariff.  The  contiguity  which  had,  at  first,  helped  to  make 
people  consider  the  United  States  a  natural  market  for  their  products 
taught  the  farmer,  after  a  while,  that  it  was,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
simply  a  medium  of  transportation  for  the  most  of  his  articles  to 
Great  Britain  ;  and  tausfht  the  manufacturer  that  he  had  little  chance 
of  competing  in  the  protected  American  market  upon  equal  terms 
and  that  it  would,  therefore,  be  better  for  him  to  try  and  hold  the 
consumers  at  his  own  doors  and  then  to  follow  the  British  example 
and  go  abroad  for  trade. 

32 


6o2  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

Canadians  found,  in  fact,  that  Americans  were  their  rivals  in  mill- 
ing, competitors  in  production,  opponents  in  railway  and  waterway 
transportation,  antagonists  in  manufacturing,  in  jobbing,  in  importing 
and  distributing,  rivals  in  the  British  market.  Hence  the  gradual 
change  shown  in  the  trade  returns.  In  1853  the  imports  from  the 
United  States  into  British  America  were  $7,301,000,  in  1863  $24,967,- 
000,  in  1873  $47,375,000,  in  1883  $56,032,000,  in  1893  $58,221,000.  In 
1853  Canadian  exports  to  the  United  States  amounted  to  $6,527,000, 
in  1863  to  $17,484,000,  in  1873  to  $42,072,000,  in  1883  to  $41,668,000 
in  1893  to  $43,923,000,  It  will  be  seen  that  the  growth  of  this  trade 
was  large  and  steady  until  1873,  when  it  became  almost  stationary. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  century  it  is  expanding  in  imports  as  a  result 
of  specialized  American  manufactures,  general  good  times  and 
increased  demand  by  Canadian  manufacturers  for  raw  material. 

Trade  with  Great  Britain,  meantime,  showed  a  curious  process  of 
development.     At  the  beginning  and  up  to  the  middle  of  the  century, 
most  of  the  commerce  of  the  Colonies  had  been  transacted  with  the 
Mother-land.     After  that  time,  for  reasons  already  mentioned,  a  good 
deal  was  diverted  to  the  United  States.     Until  1875,  however,  the  Pro- 
vinces, or  the  Dominion,  as  the  case  might  be,  continued  to  obtain 
most  of  their  imports  from  Great  Britain — nearly  double  what  they 
exported  to  her.   In  1873  the  exports  to  the  Mother-land  were  $38, 743,- 
000  and  the  imports  from  her  $68,522,000;  in   1893  the  exports  had 
become    $64,080,000,   the  imports   $43,148,000 — almost    a   complete 
reversal.      In  1898  the  position  was  still  more  striking  with  exports  of 
^104,0,98,000  and  imports  of  only  $32,500,000.     The  reasons  for  this 
transformation  are  several.     The  British  market  has  consumed  and 
required  much  more  of  Canadian  food   products.     The  latter  have 
become  better  known  and  fewer  shipments  are  going  by  the  way  of 
American  ports  to  be  classed  as  American  products. 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  603 

On  the  other  hand  Canadians  have  found  that  many  special 
American  manufactured  articles  were  cheaper  than  the  corresponding 
British  goods  or,  perhaps,  owing  to  British  carelessness  and  indiffer- 
ence, easier  to  obtain.  Contiguity  and  cheapness  combined  have  had 
a  pronounced  effect  in  this  connection  and  a  good  illustration  of  the 
fact  may  be  seen  in  the  iron  and  steel  imports  of  Canada  during  two 
periods  of  five  years  each.  In  1882-86  the  Dominion  bought  from 
Great  Britain,  in  round  numbers,  $44,000,000  worth  of  this  great  staple 
product  and  in  1894-98  $29,000,000 — a  decrease  of  fifteen  millions. 
In  1882-86  the  Dominion  bought  from  the  United  States  $20,000,000 
worth  of  iron  and  steel,  and  in  1894-98  $41,000,000 — an  increase  of 
twenty-one  millions,  or  more  than  double  the  original  figure.  Local 
conditions  and  increased  industrial  production  within  Canada  have,  of 
course,  had  something  to  do  with  this  general  decrease  in  the  imports 
of  British  goods  and  it  remains  to  be  seen  in  1900  and  ensuing  years 
what  effect  the  preferential  British  tariff,  inaugurated  by  the  Laurier 
Government  in  1898,  may  have  upon  this  particular  tendency  of 
Canadian  trade. 

A  great  and  growing  source  of  prosperity  to  Canada,  in  and  about 
the  year  1900,  has  been  its  mines.  Iron  and  coal,  lead,  copper,  nickel, 
mica,  silver,  gold,  asbestos,  and  various  other  minerals,  exist  in  immense 
quantities  and  some  of  them  were  long  known  to  be  products  of  Bri- 
tish America.  But  difficulties  of  transportation,  of  mining  and  of 
smelting  the  ore,  and  alarm  as  to  the  nature  of  the  climate — coupled 
with  general  ignorance  abroad  concerning  the  vast  resources  which 
only  a  few  knew  anything  about  authoritatively — combined  to  prevent 
much  being  done  until  near  the  end  of  the  century.  British  Columbia,  it 
is  true,  shared  in  the  California  gold  boom  of  the  "  fifties,"  its  placer 
gold  was  pretty  thoroughly  explored  and  exploited  and,  in  time,  some 
$50,000,000  worth  of  gold  dust  was  extracted  from  its  streams  and 
valleys.     This,  however,  was  merely  skimming  the  surface.      Nova 


6o4  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

Scotia,  for  many  years,  kept  up  a  small,  steady  and  paying  production 
of  gold  and  coal,  while  salt  and  petroleum  were  long  substantial  pro- 
ducts of  Ontario.  An  increasing  consumption  of  Canadian  coal  was 
also  visible  as  the  years  went  on  and  tariffs  were  so  arranged  as  to 
help  Nova  Scotia  in  the  other  Provinces.  The  exports  of  this  product 
rose,  very  slowly,  from  265,000  tons  in  1868,  to  1,140,000  tons  in  1899. 
But  this  production  of  coal  only  touched  the  surface  of  the  vast 
resources  which  are  now  known  to  exist  in  Nova  Scotia,  in  British 
Columbia  and  in  the  North-West  Territories. 

Every  effort  has  latterly  been  made  by  fiscal  legislation  and  boun- 
ties— notably  in  Sir  Charles  Tupper's  policy  of  1883 — to  encourage 
iron  and  steel  industries  in  Canada ;  but  without  very  marked  effect 
until  the  later  "  nineties,"  when  blast  furnaces  began  to  increase  in 
number  and  production  in  almost  every  part  of  Canada  and  especially  in 
Nova  Scotia,  Ontario  and  British  Columbia.  The  great  Canadian 
development  of  this  last  decade  has,  however,  been  that  of  gold  produc- 
tion. In  1894,  the  total  for  all  Canada  was  $1,128,688,  and  at  about 
that  figure  it  had  stood  for  twenty  years.  In  1896  it  was  $2,754,774, 
in  the  next  year  over  $6,000,000,  in  1898,  $13,000,000  and,  in  1899, 
over  $2 1 ,000,000.  The  main  cause  of  this  expansion  was  the  discovery 
and  development  of  the  great  Yukon  District  in  respect  of  its  bound- 
less resources  in  gold-seamed  ore.  There  was  also  the  discovery  of 
gold  in  the  Lake  of  the  Woods  region  of  Ontario  and  the  immense 
wealth  in  the  same  connection  which  was  found  to  exist  at  Rossland 
and  throughout  the  Kootenay  District  of  British  Columbia.  Between 
1896  and  1899  the  gold  production  of  the  Yukon,  known  to  Canadian 
authorities,  increased  from  $300,000  to  $16,000,000,  and  the  quantity 
of  gold  dust  carried  away  yearly  by  American  miners,  and  uncontrolled 
by  the  Government,  must  have  made  the  figures  of  total  production 
double  the  latter  amount.  Silver  has  also  been  found  to  be  a  large 
product  of  Canada,  though  not  in  later  years  a  very  profitable  one, 


■C; 


5  =7- 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  Scyj 

while  nickel  in  great  masses  has  been  found  along  the  northern  shores 
of  Lake  Superior  and  is  being  rapidly  developed  as  a  result  of 
inflowing  British  and  American  capital.  The  total  figures  of  mineral 
production  in  the  Dominion  speak  for  themselves  and  amounted  to  a 
total  value  of  $10,000,000  in  1893,  $22,000,000  in  1896  and  $48,000,- 
000  in  1899. 

Meanwhile,  the  farmer  and  the  farmer's  position  had  been  chang- 
ing greatly.  The  pioneer  log-houses  and  shanties  of  the  older  Prov- 
inces had  given  place  to  comfortable  farm-houses  and  large  barns. 
The  forest  and  wilderness  had  been  replaced  by  smiling  fields,  or 
gardens,  or  fruit  farms.  The  wooden  home-made  furniture  of  early 
times  had  disappeared,  and  even  the  antique  relics  of  pre-Revolution- 
ary  days  discarded  for  newly  manufactured  articles  largely  made  in 
Canada  ;  and,  from  the  ever-popular  organ  to  the  horse-hair  sofa,  every- 
thing in  the  farm-houses  had  begun  to  breathe  of  a  newer  and  cheaper 
age.  The  era  of  machinery  came  also  and  did  away  with  the  working- 
man  who,  in  large  farms,  had  almost  constituted  villages  in  themselves. 
The  rush  and  roar  of  the  latter  end  of  the  nineteenth  century  has 
affected  the  young  men  of  the  farms  and  drawn  many  of  them  into  the 
teeming  cities  of  the  American  States,  or  to  the  growing  centres  of 
Ontario  itself.  The  boom  of  Western  progress  attracted  others  and 
many  a  mortgage  upon  the  homesteads  of  Ontario  owed  its  origin  to 
the  settlement  of  sons  in  Manitoba  or  upon  the  Western  plains.  The 
question  of  the  farmer's  progress  or  otherwise  is,  therefore,  a  debat- 
able one. 

The  area  for  his  work,  the  opportunities  of  agriculture,  the 
facilities  for  production,  have  all  immensely  increased.  In  Ontario, 
or  Upper  Canada  as  it  then  was,  the  area  occupied  in  1826  was  3,353,- 
000  acres  and  the  cultivated  area  599,000  acres  ;  in  184 1  the  figures  for 
the  one  were  6,868,000  and  for  the  other  1,811,000  ;  in  1891  the  former 
amounted  to  21,091,000  acres,  the  latter  to  14, 15  7,000  acres.     This  is 


6o8  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

an  enormous  expansion  for  a  Provincial  population  which  only 
increased,  in  round  numbers,  from  half  a  million  to  two  millions. 
Added  to  this  was  the  opening  up  of  the  vast  wheat-fields  of  the 
West,  the  splendid  ranching  country  of  the  Territories,  the  fruit- 
bearing  regions  of  British  Columbia.  With  it  also  came  the  develop- 
ment in  cattle  production  marked  by  an  export  of  live  cattle  to  Great 
Britain  in  the  four  years,  1875-78,  which  was  valued  at  $1,1 18,000  and 
in  1895-98  at  $27,552,000  ;  the  expansion  in  the  cheese  industry  from 
an  export  of  $620,000  in  1868  to  one  of  $16,776,000  in  1899  ;  the 
growth  of  the  export  trade  in  bacon  and  hams  from  $783,000  in  1868 
to  $10,416,478  in  1899  ;  the  fact  of  a  total  shipment  to  Great  Britain 
of  cattle,  horses  and  sheep,  between  1874  and  1897,  valued  at  $180,- 
000,000. 

Against  these  evident  marks  and  signs  of  progress  must  be 
recorded  the  increase  of  debt  and  mortgages,  the  more  expensive 
habits  and  style  of  living,  the  decrease  in  prices  and  values  of 
property,  marked  in  Ontario  by  a  diminution  in  the  value  of  farm 
lands  of  $92,000,000  between  1886  and  1898.  Upon  the  whole,  how- 
ever, the  Canadian  farmer  may  be  said,  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  to  be  better  off  than  most  of  his  world-wide  competitors  and 
to  possess  enough  of  comforts  and  a  sufficient  absence  of  nature's 
abnormal  incidents — hurricanes,  insect  pests,  floods  and  climatic  dis- 
asters of  different  kinds — to  mark  him  out  a  fairly  fortunate  man. 

RAILWAYS,    CANALS    AND    SHIPPING 

In  the  matter  of  railways,  Canada  has  made  progress  during  its 
last  fifty  years  of  history  which  should  be  sufficient  to  stamp  its 
people  as  an  enterprising  and  capable  population.  When  Confedera- 
tion brought  the  scattered  Provinces  together  there  were  only  two 
thousand  miles  of  railway,  largely  in  Ontario,  and  dreams  of  some- 
thing better.  Then  came  the  construction  and  rapid  completion  of  the 
Inter-Colonial  Railway,  connecting  the  Atlantic  towns  with  the  City  of 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  609 

Quebec  and  ultimately  with  Montreal  ;  the  struggle  for,  and  final  crea- 
tion of  the  trans-continental  line  which  has  made  the  Dominion  a 
national  unit  in  all  matters  of  transportation  and  inter-communication  ; 
the  building  of  many  other  lines  in  all  the  Provinces  and  the  formation 
of  a  general  system  which  has  made  the  country  a  net-work  of  busy 
railways,  running  into  every  important  nook  and  corner,  and  totalling 
up,  in  1899,  to  over  seventeen  thousand  miles  of  track.  With  this 
period  and  part  of  the  country's  development  the  names  of  Sir 
William  Van  Home  and  Mr.  T.  G.  Shaughnessy  in  the  later  history 
and  management  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  ;  those  of  Charles  J.  Brydges, 
Sir  Joseph  Hickson  and  Charles  M.  Hays  in  the  building  up  of  the 
Grand  Trunk  system ;  those  of  George  Laidlaw,  F.  C.  Capreol  and 
Lieut-Colonel  F.  W.  Cumberland,  in  the  construction  of  lesser  lines  ; 
those  of  Sir  Sandford  Fleming,  Thomas  C.  Keefer,  and  Walter 
Shanly,  as  engineers  in  charge  of  construction  ;  were  intimately  con- 
nected and  should  be  remembered  and  recorded  with  honour.  The 
bulk  of  the  expansion  was  effected  between  1875  and  1890  and,  after 
the  latter  date,  the  progress  continued  to  be  steady  and  sure.  In 
1875  ^^^  train  mileage  was,  in  round  numbers,  seventeen  millions, 
in  1899  it  was  fifty-two  millions.  The  number  of  passengers  rose  in 
the  same  period  from  five  to  nineteen  millions,  the  tons  of  freight 
carried  from  five  to  thirty-one  millions,  the  earnings  from  nineteen 
to  sixty-two  millions  of  dollars,  the  working  expenses  from  fifteen 
to  forty  millions. 

Meanwhile,  the  canal  system  which  connects  the  Great  Lakes 
with  the  St.  Lawrence  and  thence,  through  a  reasonable  deepening  of 
the  river  itself  at  certain  points,  with  the  Atlantic,  developed  steadily  , 
and  at  great  cost.  Canal  construction  had  been  an  evident  necessity 
from  the  earliest  period  of  British  occupation  in  the  country  and,  even 
before  the  division  of  the  Province  in  1791,  it  was  urgently  advocated. 
In  18 1 5  a  Legislative  effort  >yas  made  to  begin  the  work  by  making 


6io  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

the  Lachine  Canal  above  Montreal,  but  without  success,  and  it  was 
not  until  six  years  later  that  operations  really  commenced.  Towards 
its  construction  the  British  Government  contributed  $400,000  and  the 
same  Government  defrayed  almost  the  entire  expense  of  building  the 
Rideau  Canal  between  Ottawa  and  Kingston — $3,91 1,000 — as  well  as 
giving  $222,000  to  aid  the  Welland  Canal  project.  Very  slowly  other 
improvements  in  the  St.  Lawrence  navigation  were  effected.  The 
Beauharnois  Canal  was  opened  in  1845  and  some  fifty  years  later 
replaced  by  the  Soulanges  Canal;  the  Cornwall  was  opened  in  1843  ; 
the  Williamsburg  Series  of  three  canals  was  completed  in  1856  ;  the 
Welland  Canal,  after  prolonged  pioneer  work  by  the  Hon.  William 
Hamilton  Meritt  and  many  political  and  financial  difficulties  and 
failures,  was  commenced  in  1821  and  sufficiently  completed  to  permit 
of  its  use  a  dozen  years  later.  The  Richelieu  Canals,  connecting  the 
St.  Lawrence  with  Hudson  River  via  the  Richelieu  and  Lake 
Champlain,  were  practically  commenced,  after  much  controversy,  in 
1835,  ^^^  were  in  a  sort  of   working  order  by  1843. 

None  of  these  works,  however,  were  really  completed  at  the 
time  of  opening.  Changes  and  enlargements  and  improvements  and, 
sometimes,  complete  renewals  had  to  be  effected.  The  Provinces 
were  poor  and,  up  to  the  Union  in  1841,  Lower  Canada  would  do 
little  or  nothing  to  encourage  developments  of  this  nature.  Its  public 
men  were  too  busy  fighting  for  fancies  and  warring  against  wind-mills 
to  care  about  coming  down  to  practical  every-day  considerations  such 
as  the  promotion  of  transportation  facilities.  Besides,  such  action  might 
have  helped  the  detested  English  merchant  and  this  could  hardly  be  a 
popular  possibility  to  the  French  demagogue  of  1820-37.  Much,  how- 
ever, was  done  by  men  like  the  Hon.  John  Young,  Sir  Hugh  Allan 
and  W.  Hamilton  Merritt  and,  between  1841  and  Confederation, 
considerable  progress  was  made  and  a  total  of  $21,000,000  expended. 
The  foundation  had,   in  fact,  been   laid  and,  after  1867,  money  was 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  6ii 

freely  spent — to  the  tune  of  $34,000,000  up  to  1889 — in  deepening, 
enlarging  and  strengthening  the  system.  A  uniform  depth  of  fourteen 
feet  in  the  whole  vast  waterway  has  been  aimed  at  and,  in  1897,  over 
$4,000,000  more  were  voted  by  Parliament  to  complete  this  policy. 

The  development  of  transportation  upon  lake  and  river  and 
ocean  has  had  a  most  important  influence  upon  Canadian  progress. 
The  Indian  birch-bark  cartoe  was  early  replaced  by  the  French 
batieau,  and  the  Durham  flat-bottomed  boat.  Upon  the  Great  Lakes, 
also,  sailing  vessels  of  various  kinds  soon  found  a  place  in  the  stunted 
commerce  of  the  period.  The  immense  number  of  rivers  and  the 
absence  of  roads  made  water  transport  naturally  popular  with  the 
pioneer  traders  although  the  absence  of  canals  and  deepening  facili- 
ties rendered  a  great  deal  oi  portaging, — the  carrying  of  boats  over  or 
around  an  obstruction — necessary.  The  first  steamer  plying  between 
Montreal  and  Quebec,  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  was  built  by  Mr.  John 
Molson  in  181 1,  and  twelve  years  later  there  were  a  dozen  of  them. 
In  18 16,  Lake  Ontario  saw  its  first  steamer  in  the  Fro7itenac,  built  at 
a  cost  of  $75,000,  and  within  twenty  years  from  that  time  all  the  larger 
bodies  of  water  throughout  the  country  had  steam-boats  plying 
between  the  principal  ports.  With  Mr.  Molson  in  the  pioneer  labours 
of  this  development  were  chiefly  associated  John  and  David  Torrance, 
Sir  Hugh  Allan  and  the  Hon.  John  Hamilton.  The  first  steamer  on 
the  Red  River  in  the  far  West  commenced  operations  in  1859;  °^ 
the  Pacific  coast  the  first  to  ply  between  its  various  fur-bearing  posts 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  was  the  Beaver,  which  came  out  in 
1835  from  England — after  being  launched  by  King  William  IV.  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  gathering  of  people.  In  the  Atlantic  Provinces 
the  splendid  harbour  of  Halifax  was  first  entered  by  a  steamer  on 
August  31,  1 83 1,  when  the  Royal  William  steamed  in  from  Quebec 
and  entered  upon  its  career  as  the  pioneer  steamship  of  the  vast 
Atlantic  traffic  of  the  end  of  the  century. 


6i2  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

Nine  years  later  the  Cunard  Line,  founded  by  Sir  Samuel  Cunard, 
commenced  to  call  at  Halifax,  though  it  soon  afterwards  made  New 
York  its  American  terminus.  The  first  coasting  steamer  of  this 
region  had  been  launched  at  St.  John  in  1816.  In  the  year  1900 
there  are  many  lines  of  steamships  running  from  Quebec,  Montreal, 
Halifax  or  St.  John  to  Great  Britain,  the  United  States,  the  West 
Indies,  South  America  and  Newfoundland  ;  while  from  Vancouver 
on  the  Pacific  similar  lines  run  to  the  American  Pacific  cities,  to 
Honolulu,  Australia,  Hong-Kong  and  Japan.  Of  these  various 
transportation  agencies  the  Allan  Line  was  started  in  1852  by  Mr. 
Hugh  Allan,  the  Dominion  Line  in  1870,  the  Richelieu  and  Ontario 
Navigation  Company  in  1845.  The  latter  was  re-organized  in  1882 
by  Mr.  L.  A.  Senecal,  a  noted  figure  in  the  financial  life  of  Quebec. 
The  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  Lines  were  started  on  the  Pacific  in 
1 89 1  and  preceded  by  large  boats  upon  the  Great  Lakes  under  the 
same  management.  By  the  year  1896  the  Canadian  tonnage  arriving  at 
Canadian  ports  included  6,810  vessels  of  1,067,000  tons,  1,684  British 
vessels  of  2,350,000  tons,  and  6,797  foreign  vessels  of  5,845,000  tons. 

The  ship-building  industry  had,  of  course  an  intimate  connection 
with  Canadian  development  along  these  lines.  The  immense  inland 
resources  of  forest  and  timber  made  Quebec  and  the  Atlantic  coast 
ideal  places  for  building  ships  in  the  days  before  iron  and  steel  had 
worked  their  industrial  and  naval  revolution.  As  far  back  as  1672, 
Talon,  the  eminent  Intendant  of  New  France,  ordered  the  building 
of  a  ship  at  Quebec.  During  the  century  which  followed,  mainly 
under  the  French  regime,  ship-building  was  but  a  fitful  pursuit,  as 
were  all  industrial  and  commercial  matters  in  that  period.  After  1 787, 
however,  the  trade  revived  and  increased  from  a  production  of  ten 
ships  of  933  tons  in  that  year  to  84  ships  of  21,616  tons  in  1875 — ^ 
total  during  the  whole  period  of  3,873  ships  with  a  tonnage  of  1,285,- 
000.      Latterly  the  trade  has  diminished  but,  at  Quebec  as  in   Nova 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  613 

Scotia,  it  is  not  improbable  that  modern  constructive  materials  and 
methods  will  yet  revive  the  old  glories  of  the  industry.  In  the  latter 
Province  the  palmy  days  of  ship-building  were  in  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  Halifax,  Yarmouth,  Windsor  and  Pictou 
were  great  centres  of  production  and  Nova  Scotia  bottoms  were  to  be 
found  in  every  port  of  the  maritime  world.  Decay  has  come  to  the 
industry  since  1882,  and  the  only  hope  of  revival  lies  in  the  utiliza- 
tion of  the  coal  and  iron  which  lie  side  by  side,  almost  upon  the  coast, 
and  might  well  form  the  basis  of  a  great  future  in  iron  and  steel  ship- 
building. 

BANKING    DEVELOPMENT 

Canadian  general  progress  owes  much  to  the  banking  system  of 
the  Dominion.  Like  every  other  interest  or  institution  in  the  coun- 
try it  has  experienced  ups  and  downs  and  faced  difficulties  and 
dangers.  When  the  Quebec  Bank  and  Bank  of  Montreal  were 
started  in  181 7,  in  the  then  chief  centres  of  trade  and  business,  the 
banking  of  the  country  consisted  in  managing  its  shipments  of  furs 
and  transport  of  timber  and  in  lending  money  to  the  men  engaged  in 
operations  which  covered  thousands  of  miles  of  wilderness  in  Upper 
Canada  and  the  far  West  In  time  other  banks  started.  The  Bank 
of  British  North  America  was  established  by  London  capitalists  in 
1836.  The  Bank  of  Upper  Canada  was  organized  in  1823  by  men 
largely  interested  in  the  dominant  party  of  that  day  and  it  continued 
during  many  years  of  great  prosperity  and  eventual  adversity  to  be 
somewhat  of  a  political  institution.  The  Commercial  Bank  of  the 
Midland  District,  in  the  same  Province,  was  formed  in  1832  and  others 
followed  until,  in  1859,  after  the  commercial  crisis  of  the  preceding 
year  had  come  and  gone,  there  were  fifteen  banks  in  the  Canadas 
with  a  capital  of  $24,000,000  as  against  $3,000,000  when  originally 
chartered.  In  the  Maritime  Provinces  the  Bank  of  Nova  Scotia,  one 
of  the  earliest  and  also  one  of  the  most  notable   institutions,  was 


6i4  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

organized  in  1832.  In  point  of  time  it  was  preceded  by  the  Bank 
of  New  Brunswick  which  had  been  incorporated  in  1820. 

Smaller  institutions  came  and  went  in  all  the  Provinces  until,  at 
Confederation  in  1867,  the  Bank  of  Montreal  with  its  twenty-nine 
branches  and  a  capital  of  $6,000,000,  the  Bank  of  British  North  Amer- 
ica with  its  twelve  branches  and  capital  of  $4,866,000,  the  Commercial 
Bank  of  Canada  with  its  eighteen  branches  and  $4,000,000  capital,  were 
the  principal  institutions.  There-  were  then  twenty-eight  banks, 
altogether,  with  125  branches  and  a  paid-up  capital  of  $32,000,000. 
The  system,  as  existing  in  that  year,  and  not  yet  m.atured  and  consoli- 
dated by  Federal  legislation,  was  a  product  of  varied  experiments  and 
experiences.  The  early  banking  of  the  country  had  been  carried  on 
by  American  methods ;  although,  as  time  went  on,  the  Scotch  ideas 
of  the  founders  came  more  and  more  into  effect  and  the  internal  man- 
agement of  the  banks  largely  followed  British  methods.  The  inaug- 
uration of  the  branch  system  strengthened  this  tendency  and  marked 
an  important  differentiation  from  American  models.  Still,  there  was 
a  strong  Legislative  tendency  to  copy  the  United  States  in  financial 
matters  and,  from  time  to  time,  dangerous  experiments  were  tried — 
such,  for  instance,  as  the  suspension  of  specie  payments  in  1837 
against  which  Sir  Francis  Bond  Head  had  protested  so  vigourously  and 
uselessly  to  his  Upper  Canadian  Legislature.  To  the  intervention 
at  this  time  of  the  Imperial  Government,  the  wise  despatches  of  Lord 
Glenelg,  Colonial  Secretary,  and  the  later  series  of  regulations  pro- 
pounded by  Lord  John  Russell,  Canada  owes  much  of  the  stability 
and  success  of  its  present  system.  The  proposals  of  Lord  J.  Russell 
in  1840  form,  in  fact,  the  basis  of  Canadian  banking  charters  and  laws. 

At  Confederation,  the  Government  was  faced  with  the  necessity 
of  a  thorough  re-organization  of  the  banking  system  of  the  country. 
Practically  it  had  to  be  federalized  and  made  into  a  national  insti- 
tution.    The  preliminaries  were  gone  into  by  the  Finance  Minister, 


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THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  617 

Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  John  Rose,  largely  in  consultation  with  Mr.  E. 
H.  King,  who  was  then  head  of  the  Bank  of  Montreal  and  the 
leading  banker  in  Canada.  Influenced  by  Mr.  King  and,  perhaps, 
by  his  own  financial  fancies,  he  proposed  to  establish  what  was,  in  the 
main,  the  American  system  of  banking  and  currency.  The  proposals, 
as  eventually  presented  to  Parliament,  excited  the  keenest  controversy, 
were  vigorously  denounced  by  Mr.  George  Brown  and  the  Toronto 
Globe,  and  were  eventually  withdrawn.  Sir  Francis  Hincks  succeeded 
Mr.  Rose  in  the  Ministry  of  Finance  and,  in  March  1870,  introduced 
a  series  of  Resolutions  which  were  finally  passed  and  under  which  the 
existing  system  was  established.  Under  succeeding  Finance  Minis- 
ters every  decade  has  seen  a  revision  and  improvement  of  existing 
arrangements  and  Sir  Leonard  Tilley,  Mr.  George  E.  Foster  and 
Mr.  W.  S.  Fielding  have  each  had  to  do  with  this  perfecting  of  bank- 
ing legislation. 

The  statistical  progress  of  banking  since  Confederation  has  been 
very  great.  The  paid-up  capital  of  Canadian  banks  has  increased 
from  $30,000,000  in  1868,  in  round  numbers,  to  $62,000,000  in  1896; 
the  notes  in  circulation  from  $9,000,000  to  $31,000,000;  the  deposits 
from  $33,000,000  to  $193,000,000  ;  the  discounts  from  $52,000,000  to 
$213,000,000.  The  total  assets  in  1868  were  $79,000,000  and  thelia- 
bilities  $45,000,000.  In  1896  they  were,  respectively,  $320,000,000 
and  $232,000,000.  Some  of  the  representative  bankers  in  early  days 
were  Thomas  G.  Ridout  of  the  Bank  of  Upper  Canada  and  the  suc- 
cessive General  Managers  of  the  Bank  of  Montreal — Benjamin 
Holmes,  Alexander  Simpson,  David  Davidson  and  E.  H.  King. 
Later  occupants  of  this  position,  as  the  bank  rose  into  one  of  the 
three  or  four  greatest  financial  institutions  in  the  world  were,  of 
course,  men  of  much  ability  and  wide  influence.  R.  B.  Angus,  C.  F. 
Smithers,  W.  J.  Buchanan  and  E.  S.  Clouston  have,  in  their  turn,  had 
a  substantial  share  in  the  development  of  Canada  and  one  which  the 


6i8  THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY 

average  historian  is  far  too  ready  to  overlook  in  favour  of  the  utter- 
ances of  some  prominent  poHtician  as  he  floats  by  on  a  passing  wave 
of  popular  opinion.  James  Stevenson  of  the  Quebec  Bank,  George 
Hague  of  the  Merchants  Bank,  D.  R.  Wilkie  of  the  Imperial  Bank, 
Byron  E.  Walker  of  the  Canadian  Bank  of  Commerce,  Thomas 
Fyshe  of  the  Bank  of  Nova  Scotia,  are  men  of  a  later  period  and  of 
considerable  public  influence. 

In  other  directions  Canadian  development  has  been  pronounced. 
Partly  because  of  the  protection  given  to  its  industries  by  the  tariff" 
and  partly  because  of  the  growing  efficiency  of  manufacturers  and 
increase  of  population  in  the  country,  there  has  been  considerable 
industrial  development.  In  1891,  there  were,  according  to  the  census 
returns,  75,941  manufacturing  establishments  in  Canada,  with  a  work- 
ing capital  of  $181,000,000  and  which  employed  370,000  men,  women 
and  children,  paid  out  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  wages, 
used  raw  material  to  the  value  of  $256,000,000  and  had  a  total  pro- 
duction valued  at  $476,000,000.  An  important  national  interest 
and  industry  of  Canada  has  always  been  its  fisheries,  and  sometimes 
they  have  also  proved  a  factor  of  international  importance.  The 
fish  of  the  Great  Lakes  ;  of  the  lesser  bodies  of  water  scattered 
in  immense  numbers  throughout  all  the  Provinces  and,  especially,  in 
the  far  north  and  west,  between  Lake  Superior,  Hudson's  Bay  and 
the  Arctic  Ocean  ;  of  the  rivers  flowing  in  all  directions  throughout  the 
three  million  square  miles  of  Canadian  territory  ;  are  inexhaustible  in 
variety  and  numbers. 

The  sea-fisheries  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Canada  are  of  great 
value  though  the  annual  average  production  does  not  exceed  ten 
million  dollars.  Cod,  herring,  lobsters,  salmon,  haddock,  halibut  and 
hake  on  the  Atlantic,  with  seal  and  salmon  on  the  Pacific,  and  white- 
fish,  salmon-trout,  sturgeon,  pickerel,  pike,  black-bass,  perch  and  carp 
m    the    lakes    and    rivers,    are   the   most  numerous  and  best  known 


THE  GROWTH  OF  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY  619 

products  of  these  varied  waters.  Since  1869  the  value  of  the  fish 
extracted  from  the  lakes  and  rivers  and  sea-board  of  the  various 
Provinces  is  stated  at  $28,000,000  for  Ontario,  $54,000,000  for  Quebec, 
$180,000,000  for  Nova  Scotia,  $81,000,000  for  New  Brunswick, 
$5,600,000  for  the  North-West,  $45,000,000  for  British  Columbia, 
$25,000,000  for  little  Prince  Edward  Island.  In  the  seal  fisheries  of 
British  Columbia,  about  which  there  has  been  such  pronounced  inter- 
national controversy,  there  were  some  14,000  Canadians  engaged  in 
1895,  with  sixty-one  vessels  and  638  boats  and  canoes.  Away  to  the 
farthest  north  of  the  Dominion  are  the  richest  whaling-grounds  in  the 
world — the  last  resort  of  the  leviathans.  The  walrus,  sea-trout,  the 
inconnu,  pike,  sturgeon,  and  other  fish,  also  abound  in  these  waters. 
To  sum  up,  it  may  be  said  that  the  estimated  value  of  the  product  of 
Canadian  fisheries  was  $150,000  in  1850,  six  and  a  half  millions  in 
1870,  fourteen  millions  in  1880,  thirty  millions  in  1900. 

Such  has  been  the  material  progress  of  Canada  in  its  more 
important  aspects.  It  has  been  considerable,  and  the  picture  as  a 
whole  reveals  a  panorama  of  development  which  makes  some  measure 
of  pride  not  unbecoming  in  the  Canadian  of  the  last  days  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  But  it  is  nothing  in  comparison  to  the  resources 
and  possibilities  afforded  by  the  water-ways,  the  fertile  plains  and  soil, 
the  vast  mineral  resfions  and  the  rich  fisheries  of  the  Dominion. 
Much  has  been  done  by  legislation  to  help  the  development  of  these 
resources  and,  perhaps,  the  most  pronounced  lesson  taught  by 
Canadian  history,  outside  of  the  teachings  afforded  by  a  persistent 
loyalty  amongst  the  people  to  British  connection  and  the  Crown,  is 
the  importance  of  legislation  dealing  with  the  promotion  of  material 
wealth  and  the  comparative  un-importance  of  mere  party  conflicts  and 
even  constitutional  struggles. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

External  Relations  of  the  Dominion 

THE  relations  between  Great  Britain  and  Canada  during  the 
period  of  their  connection  under  the  Crown  have  no  exact,  or 
even  near,  parallel  in  history.  British  America  was  acquired 
in  the  first  place  rather  as  a  graduated  result  of  the  world-wide  strug- 
gle between  France  and  England  than  because  of  any  set  British  plan 
or  purpose.  It  was  not  conquered  because  any  particular  value  was 
expected  to  accrue  from  its  acquisition,  nor  was  it  retained  for  any 
other  reason  than  a  feeling  of  responsibility  to  its  people  and  honour 
in  its  possession.  Incidentally,  the  determination  not  to  let  France 
extend  its  power  by  retaining  the  country  after  its  final  British  con- 
quest had  something  to  do  with  the  situation  ;  while,  as  a  dim  percep- 
tion commenced  to  enter  the  English  mind  after  the  Treaty  of  1783 
with  the  United  States  that,  perhaps,  the  American  child  of  Revolu- 
tion was  not  as  willing  to  be  friendly  as  was  expected,  or  desired, 
a  determination  not  to  enhance  American  power  by  the  cession,  or 
neglect,  of  the  Northern  Provinces  also  became  a  lever  in  their  reten- 
tion. 

Rrior  to  this  time  the  whole  region  had  been  a  veritable  shuttle- 
cock of  fortune  ;  mere  cards  in  a  great  game  of  European  war  and 
maritime  adventure.  New  France,  Acadie,  and  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company,  had  been  mixed  up  in  whole,  or  in  part,  in  numerous  trea- 
ties before  the  final  settlement  came.  The  Treaty  of  Susa  in  1629, 
the  Treaty  of  St.  Germain-en-Laye  in  1632,  the  Treaty  of  Westmin- 
ster in  1655,  the  Treaty  of  Buda  in  1667,  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  in 

1697,  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713,  the  Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in 
620 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  621 

1748,  all  dealt  with  the  interests  or  territory  of  the  scattered  popula- 
tion of  the  region  which  now  constitutes  the  Dominion.  With  the 
settlement  afforded  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  in  1763,  came  a  new  com- 
plication in  affairs,  the  removal  of  a  foreign  factor  from  the  American 
scene — except  in  the  far  South — and  the  creation  of  a  common  tie  of 
allegiance  between  the  one-time  French  and  English  Colonial  ene- 
mies. 

Twenty  years  sufficed  to  change  conditions  again  and,  by  the 
Treaty  of  1783,  to  recognize  the  Thirteen  Colonies  as  an  independent 
and  alien  Power  and  to  constitute  the  French  population,  by  the 
strange  irony  of  fate,  as  the  guardians  of  British  territory  and  its 
restricted  continental  influence.  The  Treaty  did  more  than  this. 
Relying  upon  anticipated  American  friendship,  free  trade  and  alliance 
it  endowed  the  United  States  with  all  the  vast  natural  wealth  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Ohio  valleys  and  just  avoided  transferring  Quebec 
to  the  same  country  and  people.  It,  in  fact,  provided  the  United 
States  with  "gigantic  boundaries  on  the  south  and  west  and  north 
which  determined  its  coming  power  and  influence."*  Other  treaties 
relating  to  boundaries,  and  ineffective  in  operation  except  as  they 
tended  to  advance  American  claims  and  to  continually  indicate  a 
British  spirit  of  conciliation,  were  signed  in  1794  and  in  1803  by  repre- 
sentatives of  the  two  countries. 

In  a  territorial  sense,  therefore,  the  Dominion  of  Canada  was 
born  out  of  a  condition  of  absolute  indifference  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain,  and,  until  the  legislation  of  1791,  was  cradled  in  a  state  of 
happy  ignorance.  The  War  of  181 2  effected  changes  of  great  impor- 
tance. It  settled  the  drift  of  destiny  for  at  least  forty  years  along 
British  lines  ;  it  established  a  new  and  strong  tie  between  Great  Bri- 
tain and  the  immense,  unknown  territory  which  had  been  thus  preserved 
to  the  Crown  by  the  bravery  of  its  sons ;  it  drew  a  line  of  fluctuating, 

•  Justin  Winsor's  America.  V.  17,  p.  150. 
33 


622  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

but  Still  distinct  character,  against  American  expansion  to  the  north. 
The  Treaty  of  Ghent,  in  1814,  by  which  the  struggle  was  con- 
cluded, contained  no  very  new  assertions  or  principles  though  out  of 
it  came  a  couple  of  somewhat  important  arrangements.  By  an  informal 
diplomatic  agreement  between  Sir  Charles  Bagot,  British  Minister  at 
Washington,  and  Mr.  Richard  Rush,  Acting-Secretary  of  State,  in 
April  181 7,  it  was  decided  that  all  armed  vessels  on  the  Great  Lakes 
should  be  dismantled  and  no  more  built,  or  armed  therein.  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  should,  however,  each  be  allowed  one 
vessel,  not  exceeding  one  hundred  tons  burthen  and  armed  with  an 
eighteen-pound  cannon,  on  Lakes  Ontario  and  Champlain,  and  two 
similar  vessels  on  the  Upper  Lakes.  The  agreement  was  to  be  bind- 
ing until  six  months  notice  was  given  by  either  Power  and,  though 
never  formally  ratified  by  Congress  or  specially  approved  by  Parlia- 
ment, it  has  since  come  to  have  the  force  of  a  treaty. 

EARLY    NEGOTIATIONS    AND    TREATIES 

The  Convention  of  London,  in  1818,  was  negotiated  and  signed 
with  a  view  to  the  settlement  of  the  fisheries  question  and  the  claims 
made  by  the  United  States  to  fish  freely  in  British  waters.  The 
matter  has  been  partly  gone  into  elsewhere  in  this  volume,  but  it  is  of 
such  importance  to  a  comprehension  of  general  international  relations 
that  the  Convention  may  be  stated  here  to  have  given  United  States 
fishermen  the  right  to  fish  outside  of  a  three  mile  limit  of  the  British 
shores  in  America  and  to  enter  British  bays  or  harbours  for  shelter, 
food,  water  and  repairs.  At  the  same  time,  the  United  States  Gov- 
ernment renounced  definitely  any  liberty  on  the  part  of  their  fisher- 
men to  take,  dry,  or  cure,  fish  on,  or  within  three  miles  of,  the  coast 
of  British  North  America.  So  far  the  arrangement  was  a  good  one 
for  the  Colonists  and  their  country.  At  this  point,  however,  the  terms 
of  the  Convention  passed  on  to  deal  with  boundary  matters  and  a 
combination  of  British  indifference  to  territory  and  of  utter  ignorance 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  623 

of  American  character,  aggressiveness  and  ambitions  marked  every 
phase  of  the  negotiations — as  they  continued  to  do  for  another  half 
century.  It  was  provided  that  the  international  boundary  should  be 
along  the  49th  parallel  of  north  latitude  from  the  Lake  of  the 
Woods  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  that  the  country  west  of  that 
f^reat  range,  which  was  claimed  by  either  party,  should  be  free  and 
open  to  the  people  of  both  nations  for  ten  years. 

Such  an  extraordinary  clause  as  the  latter  was,  perhaps,  never 
included  in  a  treaty  before.  The  claims  of  the  Americans  to  any  of  the 
country  now  included  in  the  States  of  Oregon  and  Washington  were, 
at  best,  tentative  and  very  weak.  It  is  not  likely  that  a  strong  stand 
would  have  been  resented  at  this  time  to  the  point  of  war  and,  if  it  had 
to  come  to  that  issue,  ten  years  prolongation  of  the  claims  and  agitation 
could  only  serve  to  strengthen  American  feelings,  American  rights  of 
occupation  and  American  power.  The  "settlement"  simply  post- 
poned consideration  of  the  matter  until  United  States  citizens  should 
have  time  to  pour  into  the  country  and  claim  it  by  virtue  of  present 
colonization,  if  not  by  right  of  discovery,  or  early  and  temporary 
occupation.  Excuse  for  the  apparently  utter  absence  of  statecraft  in 
this  arrangement  is,  perhaps,  found  in  the  severe  sufferings  and 
increased  poverty  of  the  poor  classes  in  Great  Britain  which  followed 
upon  the  conclusion  of  the  tremendous  struggle  with  Napoleon  ;  the 
rising  influence  of  George  Canning  and  his  policy  of  attempted 
alliance  with  the  United  States  against  the  despotic  Powers  of  Europe 
as  voiced  in  the  creation  of  the  original  Monroe  doctrine  ;  the  entire 
absence  in  the  public  mind  of  England  of  any  knowledge  or  appreci- 
ation of  the  possible  value  of  these  regions — a  condition  brought 
home  to  Canadians  themselves  more  than  a  century  later  by  Mr.  Blake's 
description  of  British  Columbia  as  nothing  but  a  "  sea  of  mountains." 

The  next  Treaty  affecting  British  America  was  that  of  1825, 
between  Great  Britain  and  Russia,  by  which  it  was  provided  that  "the 


624  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

subjects  of  His  Britannic  Majesty,  from  whatever  quarter  they  may 
arrive,  whether  from  the  ocean  or  from  the  interior  of  the  continent, 
shall foreiier  enjoy  the  right  of  navigating  freely  and  without  any 
hindrance  whatever,  all  the  rivers  (in  Alaska)  which  in  their  course 
toward  the  Pacific  Ocean  may  cross  the  line  of  demarcation."  This 
clause  was  considered,  and  admitted,  as  binding  upon  the  United 
States  when  the  Republic  afterwards  purchased  and  took  over  the 
country  from  Russia.  In  1842  and  1846  came  two  arrangements  with 
the  United  States  which  stamp  the  astuteness  of  American  leaders 
and  the  blunders  of  British  statecraft  in  broad  and  vivid  outline  upon 
the  map  of  Canada. 

Around  and  through  them  runs  that  thread  of  political  thought 
which  did  so  much  in  its  day  to  diminish  British  power  and  to  weaken 
British  prestige — the  policy  of  the  Manchester  School.  What  were 
territorial  rights,  or  the  future  interests  of  Canadians,  or  the  develop- 
ment of  British  power  on  the  American  continent,  in  comparison  with 
an  undisturbed  peace  which  might  facilitate  the  sale  of  a  few  more 
bales  of  cotton  goods  and  promote  immunity  from  increased  responsi- 
bility or  a  little  fresh  taxation  ?  They  were  nothing  to  men  like  John 
Bright,  who  had  now  begun  to  dominate  public  sentiment  in  England 
upon  questions  of  this  kind  and  who  was  able,  not  long  after  these 
events,  to  express  pious  and  cosmopolitan  aspirations  for  a  future 
American  Republic  which  should  stretch  in  one  unbroken  expanse  of 
life  and  liberty  and  happiness  from  southern  seas  to  the  Arctic 
regions  ! 

TREATIES    OF    1 842    AND    1 846 

The  Maine  and  Oregon  boundary  questions,  which  were  dis- 
posed of  by  these  Treaties,  very  nearly  carried  the  two  nations 
into  war.  Had  one  of  them  been  any  other  than  Great  Britain,  with 
her  lack  of  territorial  ambition  and  her  good-natured  endurance  of 
youthful    American    aggressiveness,  such  a  result  would  have  been 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  ^rj 

certain.  The  description  of  United  States  policy  and  diplomacy, 
as  being,  usually,  vigorous  to  the  point  of  aggression  and  forcible 
beyond  the  bounds  of  European  etiquette,  is  not  necessarily  one  of 
censure.  The  authorities  at  Washington,  in  all  these  negotiations 
and  wars  of  a  century,  believed  in  the  value  of  Continental  soil  and 
in  the  importance  of  rounding  off  their  territories  north  and  south — 
whether  by  the  acquisition  of  California  and  Nevada  and  New  Mexico, 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  or  the  acquisition  of  a  part  of  New  Brunswick 
and  the  States  of  Oregon  and  Washington.  They  had  a  distinct, 
though  not  always  direct,  policy  of  expansion  and  that  they  followed 
this  up  at  the  expense  of  Canada  and  Great  Britain  reflects  credit 
upon  their  astuteness  and  only  discredit  upon  the  statecraft  of  Eng- 
land. Well-meant  friendliness  or  conciliation,  when  not  reciprocated, 
is  simply  weakness  of  the  worst  kind. 

The  Maine  question  had  been  simmering  since  1 783  when  the 
Treaty  of  that  year  determined  the  boundary  between  the  State 
and  the  Province  of  New  Brunswick  to  be  the  St.  Croix  River,  with 
a  line  drawn  from  its  source  to  the  highlands  dividing  the  waters  fall- 
ing into  the  Atlantic  from  those  emptying  into  the  St.  Lawrence. 
The  first  form  of  the  dispute  was  as  to  which  river  was  the  true  St. 
Croix.  This  was  settled  against  the  Americans  by  a  discovery  of  the 
remains  of  De  Monts'  unfortunate  colony  on  the  island  at  its  mouth. 
Then,  as  the  river  had  branches  widely  separated  at  the  mouth,  the 
issue  turned  upon  which  branch  was  meant  in  the  Treaty.  This  was 
also  settled  in  favour  of  the  British  by  special  Commissioners.  Then, 
finally,  the  dispute  turned  upon  the  highlands  ;  what  they  were  and 
where  they  were.  The  American  claim  would  have  given  the  United 
States  many  of  the  largest  tributaries  of  the  St.  John  and  a  large 
part  of  New  Brunswick.  Not  an  iota  of  their  contention  would  they 
abandon,  or  compromise,  and  ultimately,  as  settlers  came  into  the  dis- 
puted region,  matters  grew  serious. 


628  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

After  a  particularly  violent  quarrel,  involving  the  despatch  of 
British  troops  and  Maine  militia  to  the  scene,  the  question  was 
referred,  in  1829,  to  the  arbitration  of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands. 
He  declared,  after  prolonged  examination,  that  the  matter  was 
beyond  his  power  to  determine  and  suggested  a  division  of  the  terri- 
tory in  dispute.  This  was  acceptable  to  neither  country  and  the 
quarrel  dragged  on  until  1839,  when  American  cities  bordering  upon 
Upper  Canada  were  sending  out  hordes  of  Fenian  and  other  filibus- 
ters to  prey  upon  their  neighbour's  territory.  From  Maine  went  a  lot 
of  lumbermen  who  entered  the  disputed  territory  to  take  logs  and  in 
the  face  of  the  laws  of  both  State  and  Province.  The  authorities  of 
Maine  and  New  Brunswick  each  despatched  men  to  guard  their 
interests  and  a  fight  took  place  amid  the  snow  and  ice  of  the  forest 
wilderness.  Sir  John  Harvey,  Governor  of  New  Brunswick,  immedi- 
ately issued  a  proclamation  asserting  British  rights  and  demanding 
the  retirement  of  American  troops.  Governor  Fairfield,  of  Maine, 
responded  by  calling  out  10,000  troops  for  active  service. 

WAR    WITH    AMERICA    IMMINENT 

War  seemed  imminent.  Daniel  Webster  and  other  antagonists 
of  England  in  the  Republic  clamoured  for  the  arbitrament  of  force. 
The  papers  and  the  politicians  were  full  of  determination  to  take  the 
territory.  New  Brunswick  responded  by  sending  regiments  and  artil- 
lery and  volunteers  to  the  front  and  the  whole  Province  teemed  with 
loyal  excitement.  The  Canadas  promised  substantial  aid  and  Nova 
Scotia  voted  ^100,000  and  all  her  militia  amid  intense  enthusiasm 
and  in  a  crowded  House.  Great  Britain  temporized,  however,  and 
the  London  Times,  then  and  for  many  years  the  narrow  but  powerful 
organ  of  the  -Little  Englanders,  proposed  that  everything  should  be 
given  up  to  the  Americans  which  lay  west  of  the  St.  John  River. 
Thus  peace  would  prevail  and  beside  such  a  result  what  mattered 
the  interests  and  the  territory  of  loyal  Colonists  ?     It  was  the  spirit 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  6a9 

of  the  times  in  Enorland  and  serves  to  show  the  streno^th  of  a  British 
sentiment  in  Canada  which  could  live  through  and  ultimately  over- 
come it.  President  Van  Buren  was  not,  fortunately,  of  the  same 
mind  as  Webster  and  his  friends  and  he,  therefore,  despatched 
General  Winfield  Scott  to  the  scene  of  trouble  with  apparent  instruc- 
tions to  try  and  effect  a  compromise.  Scott  was  a  brave  and  judicious, 
officer  who  had  served  against  Harvey  at  Lundy's  Lane  and  Stony 
Creek  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  two  came  to  an  agreement 
which  involved  a  temporary  joint  occupation  of  the  disputed  territory. 

Three  years  later  Lord  Ashburton  and  Daniel  Webster  were 
appointed  Commissioners  to  settle  the  dispute.  They  were  admirably 
fitted  to  duplicate  the  events  of  1783  and  181 8.  The  one  was  a  good- 
natured  believer  in  peace — at  a  high  price  if  necessary — and  was 
personally  interested,  through  his  connection  with  the  Barings,  in 
American  financial  securities.  This  latter  point  might  not  have 
directly  affected  his  action,  because  no  one  has  ever  disputed  his  per- 
sonal sense  of  honour,  but  the  fact  of  his  being  a  member  of  the  school 
of  political  thought  which  considered  British  external  responsibilities 
as  a  burden  and  Colonial  possessions  as  useless  is  beyond  question. 
His  appointment  is,  therefore,  a  standing  disgrace  to  the  Melbourne 
Government.  In  1843,  after  the  Treaty  was  negotiated,  he  declared, 
according  to  Greville's  Memoirs,  that  "  the  whole  territory  was  worth 
nothing"  and,  in  1846,  he  assured  the  House  of  Commons  regarding 
the  kindred  Oregon  territory  dispute  that  it  was  "  a  question  worth- 
less in  itself."  Webster,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  keen  American 
statesman,  with  a  shrewdness  which  bordered  on  unscrupulousness 
and  without  any  hampering  friendship  for  England  or  for  British 
interests. 

The  result  of  such  negotiations  was  inevitable.  Out  of  the 
12,000  square  miles  of  disputed  territory,  5,000  went  to  New  Bruns- 
wick ;  7,000  square  miles  of  the  most  valuable  portion  went  to  Maine  ; 


630  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

the  Dominion  of  the  future  was  shut  off  from  an  Atlantic  winter 
port ;  a  wedge  of  American  soil  was  pushed  up  into  the  heart  of  the 
Maritime  Provinces ;  and  Lord  Ashburton  returned  to  England  with 
a  treaty  of  renewed  peace  and  amity.  Incidentally,  Mr.  Webster  was 
able  to  ensure  the  ratification  of  the  Treaty  in  the  American  Senate 
by  showing  that  body  a  map  drawn  by  Franklin  in  connection  with 
the  arrangements  of  1 783  and  marked  by  a  red  line  which  revealed 
the  British  contention  to  be  absolutely  correct.  Such  was  the  Ash- 
burton Treaty  and  its  environment  of  events. 

That  of  Oreofon  was  even  worse  for  British  and  Canadian  inter- 
ests.  By  the  Convention  of  18 18,  as  already  mentioned,  there  was  a 
large  extent  of  unoccupied  territory  on  the  Pacific  coast  which  Eng- 
land seemed  to  care  little  about  and  which  was  held  for  the  Crown  by 
the  very  insecure  and  vague  lease  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company — 
the  claims  to  which  were  supported  by  the  discoveries  of  Captain 
Cook,  Vancouver,  and  other  seamen  or  travelers.  The  whole  region 
had  been  thrown  open  to  general  settlement  in  1818  and,  in  1826,  a 
sort  of  internal  agreement  was  come  to  by  which  the  49th  parallel 
was  accepted  as  the  Continental  boundary  line.  This  left  the  British 
Columbia  of  to-day  on  one  side  of  the  line  and  the  future  States  of 
Oregon  and  Washington  upon  the  other — with  the  Hudson's  Bay 
Company  exercising  its  commercial  privileges  and  a  sort  of  shadowy 
sovereignty  over  the  whole  region.  About  1845,  however,  their  diplo- 
matic success  in  the  Maine  matter  had  been  so  marked,  and  the  desire 
to  expand  westward  had  grown  so  strong,  that  the  United  States 
papers  and  politicians,  and  the  people  themselves,  began  to  clamour 
for  the  whole  Pacific  coast  territory  right  up  to  the  bounds  of  Russian 
Alaska.  The  agitation  grew  with  what  it  fed  upon  and  very  soon 
the  cry  of  "  fifty-four,  forty  or  fight  " — in  reference  to  the  Southern 
boundary  of  Russian  America  being  at  latitude  54°  40' — rang  through 
the  Republic  in  very  threatening  tones. 


11.  II I  sr   <  ii  H 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  631 

Commissioners  were  appointed  and,  although  the  American  Gov- 
ernment did  not  get  all  they  desired,  they  did  obtain  by  the  Oregon 
Treaty  of  1846  the  splendid  Puget  Sound  region  and  the  lower  valley 
of  the  Columbia,  to  which  it  is  hard  indeed  to  find  any  legitimate 
right  or  proven  claim.  The  further  question  of  the  boundary  delimi- 
tation through  the  Fuca  Straits,  under  this  Treaty,  caused  the  San 
Juan  question  of  a  later  date,  the  joint  occupation  of  the  little  island 
by  British  and  American  troops  in  1856  and  the  arrival  of  General 
Winfield  Scott,  in  1859,  ^°  once  more  act  the  part  of  pacificator.  A 
temporary  settlement,  which  lasted  until  1872,  was  patched  up  and 
then  the  German  Emperor,  acting  as  Arbitrator  under  the  terms  of 
the  Treaty  of  Washington,  decided  in  favour  of  the  American  conten- 
tion as  to  the  boundary  channel  and  awarded  San  Juan  Island  to  the 
United  States.  Meanwhile,  the  Reciprocity  Treaty  had  been  made 
in  1854,  and  this  event  marked  the  one  diplomatic  development  in  the 
history  of  British  America  where  Canadian  interests  were  fully  and 
adequately  guarded.  Its  abrogation  in  1866  marked  also  the  high- 
water  period  in  modern  American  hostility  toward  England  and  the 
Provinces. 

THE    FENIAN    RAIDS 

A  word  must  be  said  here  as  to  the  Fenian  raids.  References 
have  already  been  made  to  them  but  their  scope  and  character  were 
of  such  a  nature  as  to  fittingly  warrant  special  consideration  in  this 
place.  Like  the  raids  made  by  the  rebels  of  1837  and  their  filibus- 
tering friends  from  across  the  border  in  1838-9,  these  incidents  of 
frontier  aggressiveness  grew  naturally  out  of  the  bitter  feelings 
against  England  which  had  been  cultivated  as  a  duty  and  a  pleasure 
by  Irishmen  living  in  the  United  States.  When  the  United  States, 
in  1866,  began  to  press  Great  Britain  for  compensation  in  the  Alabama 
case  and  to  develop  the  keen  feelings  of  animosity  which  found  vent 
in  the  rejection  of  the  Reverdy  Johnson  Treaty  and  in  the  abrogation 


632  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

of  the  Canadian  Reciprocity  Treaty,  the  Irish  Revolutionary  Brother- 
hood of  New  York  and  other  cities  found  its  opportunity  for  self- 
assertion  and  attempted  achievement.  Popular  ignorance  of  the  con- 
dition, population,  sentiments  and  constitutional  system  of  British 
America  had  something  to  do  with  the  large  and  immediate  response 
to  a  call  to  arms  issued  by  the  organization  ;  popular  belief  in  the 
fact  of  British  tyranny  and  the  British  flag  being  synonymous  terms, 
and  of  similar  application  in  Ireland  and  in  Canada,  also  assisted  ; 
while  the  existence  of  a  large  body  of  men  who  had  become  accus- 
tomed to  the  free,  fighting  life  of  soldiers  in  the  Civil  War  and  were 
not  now  inclined  to  settle  down  in  the  industrious  paths  of  peace,  was 
a  source  of  much  streng-th  to  the  movement. 

After  months  of  public  drilling  and  arming  in  American  border 
towns,  the  announcement  came  across  the  frontier  in  March  1866, 
that  an  invasion  might  be  expected  on  St.  Patrick's  Day.  Ten  thou- 
sand militia  were  promptly  ordered  out  by  Major-General  Sir  P.  L. 
McDougall,  then  Commander  of  the  forces  in  British  America,  and 
14,000  appeared  on  parade  the  day  after  the  order  was  issued.  They 
were  on  duty  for  some  weeks  but  as  no  hostile  action  was  taken, 
except  an  attempt  to  seize  an  island  on  the  coast  of  New  Brunswick 
which  was  promptly  met  by  the  calling  out  of  the  Provincial  militia, 
the  most  of  them  were  allowed  to  return  home.  On  June  i,  1866, 
however,  the  actual  raid  commenced  with  the  landing  of  1,000  Feni- 
ans from  Buffalo  on  the  banks  of  the  Niagara  River,  near  Fort  Erie, 
and  the  capture  of  that  place.  Colonel  Peacocke,  of  the  i6th  Regi- 
ment, was  placed  in  command  of  the  forces  on  the  frontier  and  these 
soon  included  some  500  regular  troops,  a  battery  of  Royal  Artillery,  the 
13th  Battalion  of  Militia  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Booker,  the  York 
and  Caledonia  Companies  of  Volunteers,  the  Dunnville  NavalVolun- 
teers,  the  Governor-General's  Body-Guard  of  Toronto  under  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel G.  T.  Denison,  the  19th  Battalion  of  St.  Catharines, 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  633 

the  Queen's  Own  and  Royal  Grenadiers  of  Toronto — the  former  under 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Stoughton  Dennis — and  the  Welland  Artillery. 
There  were  about  2,300  men  altogether. 

The  intention  of  the  Fenians  was  to  destroy  the  Welland  Canal, 
but  at  Ridgeway  they  were  met  by  840  militiamen  under  Colonel 
Booker.  Owing  to  the  failure  of  a  subordinate  officer  to  carry 
out  certain  instructions,  the  arrangements  for  co-operation  between 
the  forces  of  Booker  and  Peacocke  failed  to  materialize  and  the 
former's  force,  after  fighting  for  some  time,  finally  retired  before  the 
Fenians  with  a  loss  of  nine  killed  and  thirty  wounded.  The  battle  of 
Ridgeway  was  nominally  a  defeat  and  especially  regrettable  because 
it  prevented  the  capture  of  the  Fenian  army  which  might  have  been 
accomplished  had  the  original  plan  of  operations  been  carried  out. 
However,  it  saved  the  canal  and  seems  to  have  sufficiently  scared  the 
invaders.  Neither  Colonel  Peacocke  nor  Colonel  Booker  were  to  blame 
for  the  result,  although  both  have  suffered  much  from  unjust  and  ignor- 
ant criticism.  Shortly  after  the  fight  the  Fenians  escaped  across  the 
river  under  guard  of  an  American  gunboat.  For  several  weeks,  how- 
ever, some  seven  thousand  of  them  remained  concentrated  at  Buffalo, 
threatening  another  attack,  and  a  strong  force  was  maintained  at  Fort 
Erie  to  meet  any  such  attempt.  Meanwhile,  a  large  body  of  filibus- 
ters had  gathered  at  Ogdensburgh,  N.  Y.,  but  the  presence  of  2,000 
regulars  and  volunteers  who  had  rapidly  gathered  at  Prescott,  and  of  a 
gunboat  patrolling  the  St.  Lawrence,  effectually  prevented  an  attack. 
On  June  7th,  some  eighteen  hundred  of  the  enemy  crossed  the  frontier 
into  the  Eastern  Townships  of  Quebec  but,  on  hearing  of  the  concen- 
tration of  1,100  regulars  and  militiamen  at  Huntington,  with  a  reserve 
of  5,000  troops  at  Montreal,  they  very  wisely  did  not  press  the  advance 
and  shortly  afterwards  dispersed.    This  ended  the  Raid  of  1866. 

Four  years  afterwards  large  numbers  of  Fenians  gathered  on  the 
frontiers   of    Quebec   and   again   the  militia   had  to  be  called  out. 


634  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

Within  three  days  of  the  call,  13,489  men,  with  eighteen  field-guns, 
were  in  position  af  the  points  designated  and,  on  May  25th,  1870,  a 
skirmish  took  place  at  Eccles'  Hill,  in  Mississquoi,  in  which  200 
Fenians  were  driven  out  of  a  strong  position  and  across  the  border 
by  forty  men  of  the  60th  Battalion  and  some  thirty-seven  farmers  of 
the  neighbourhood,  under  Lieut-Colonel  Brown  Chamberlin.  A 
second  invasion  in  the  Huntington  direction  was  met  and  similarly 
repulsed.  In  Ontario  there  were  other  alarms  and  threatened 
invasions,  but  no  actually  hostile  effort.  Over  a  year  later,  in  October, 
1 87 1,  a  small  band  of  Fenians  crossed  the  Manitoba  border,  but  were 
followed  by  American  troops  and  taken  back  without  having  time  to 
inflict  any  injury.  This  ended  the  Fenian  raids  which,  in  direct 
expenditure,  cost  the  Provinces  a  million*  and  a  quarter  dollars  and, 
in  the  more  indirect  losses  to  business  and  trade,  a  much  larger  sum. 
They  are  notable  for  showing  the  extraordinary  inconsistency  at 
times  visible  in  American  politics  and  diplomacy.  Although  demand- 
ing immense  sums  from  Great  Britain  for  the  accidental  escape  of  the 
Alabama  from  a  British  harbour,  the  same  Government  and  people 
openly  permitted  these  Fenian  invaders  of  a  presumably  friendly 
state  to  arm  and  drill  within  American  territory,  to  march  out  of  that 
territory  on  an  avowed  mission  of  war  and  bloodshed,  and  to  return 
again  without  fear  and  without  punishment.  They  let  this  go  on  for 
years  and  result  in  repeated  invasion ;  even  while  repudiating  responsi- 
bility during  concurrent  negotiations.  And,  finally,  they  refused  all 
indemnification,  or  even  a  consideration  of  it,  to  the  Canadian  victims 
of  this  "neutral"  system.  The  raids  are  interesting,  also,  as  illustrating 
the  attitude  of  England  towards  the  States,  her  intense  desire  to  avoid 
irritating  subjects  of  discussion,  her  willingness  to  pay  Canada's 
claims  upon  the  Republic  rather  than  to  herself  press  demands  for 
compensation.  In  this  way,  and  for  these  reasons,  the  losses  of 
Canada  were  not  considered  in  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  and  the 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  637 

United  States  escaped  all   responsibility  for  its  practical,  though  not 
technical,  share  in  the  invasions. 

THE    BEHRING    SEA    QUESTION 

Following  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  which  settled  Anglo-Ameri- 
can disputes  for  a  few  years,  came  the  Atlantic  fisheries  trouble  which 
would  have  been  disposed  of  in  1888  by  the  Treaty  negotiated  in  that 
year  between  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain,  Sir  Charles  Tupper  and  the 
Hon.  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  had  the  arrangement  been  ratified  by  the 
American  Senate.  Then,  the  Behring  Sea  question  developed  and  the 
United  States  practically  demanded  the  control  of  the  seal  fisheries  of 
the  Pacific  Coast  and  the  right  to  suppress  British  fishing  in  the  waters 
of  that  region.  The  real  reason  for  this  action  is  to  be  found  in  the 
claims  of  the  Alaskan  Seal  Company — an  American  corporation  of 
great  wealth  and  influence — to  a  monopoly  in  those  waters;  the  nominal 
reason  given  was  the  prevention  of  pelagic,  or  open  sea,  sealing  in 
order  to  avert  the  extinction  of  the  herd.  This  latter  point  was 
practically  disposed  of  by  the  Report  of  a  Commission  of  Inquiry 
appointed  by  Great  Britain  and  composed  of  the  late  Sir  George 
Baden- Powell,  M.  P.,  and  Professor  George  M.  Dawson  of  Ottawa. 
It  showed  clearly  that  the  herd  was,  in  the  first  place,  in  no  danger  of 
extinction  and  the  evidence  indicated  that,  if  it  were,  the  Alaskan 
Company  and  the  American  sealers  were  hardly  the  best  guardians  of 
its  welfare. 

In  1892,  a  treaty  was  made  by  which  the  whole  matter  was 
referred  to  arbitration  and,  at  the  tribunal  which  subsequently  met  at 
Paris,  with  Sir  John  Thompson,  Premier  of  Canada,  as  one  of  the 
British  Arbitrators,  Sir  Charles  Hibbert  Tupper  as  British  Agent  and 
Mr.  Christopher  Robinson,  Q.  C,  of  Toronto,  as  one  of  the  British 
Counsel,  a  decision  was  given  upholding  Canada  and  Britain  in  prac- 
tically every  point.  Damages  for  the  seizures  of  British  ships  which 
had  been  made  in  Pacific  waters  were  awarded  and  the  amount  left  to 


638  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

future  assessment.  After  prolonged  controversy  this  also  was  settled 
by  a  Convention  held  in  Washington,  in  1896,  and  nearly  half  a  mil- 
lion dollars  was  paid  to  Canadian  sealers  in  compensation  for  their 
losses. 

Meantime,  the  inevitable  boundary  trouble  had  developed  in 
Alaska  as  a  result  of  the  purchase  of  that  region  from  Russia  in  1867 
and  the  negotiation  of  a  treaty  two  years  later  which  proved  abortive. 
The  question  is  a  complicated  one  and  the  details  impossible  of  presen- 
tation here.  Efforts  were  made  at  Washington  in  1870  to  dispose 
of  it  and,  finally,  in  1892,  a  treaty  was  signed  by  which  a  joint  or 
co-incident  survey  of  the  disputed  region  was  to  be  made  with  a  view 
to  the  delimitation  of  the  boundary  line.  Despite  continued  efforts 
by  Canada,  however,  no  definite  steps  were  taken  by  the  United 
States  until,  in  1896,  gold  discoveries  were  made  in  the  British  Yukon 
region,  the  country  became  suddenly  famous  and  the  whole  question 
assumed  an  important  as  well  as  a  perplexing  aspect.  Then  the 
demands  for  settlement  came  from  the  Republic ;  demands  which 
increased  in  scope  as  population  poured  into  the  disputed  section  and 
as  its  importance  became  enhanced  to  the  interested  view  of  the 
American  people.  Great  efforts  were  made  by  the  Laurier  Govern- 
ment, in  1897,  to  have  the  whole  matter  referred  to  arbitration  under, 
and  in  accordance  with,  the  forms  of  the  Venezuela  arbitration.  But 
this  was  refused  by  the  American  authorities  unless  colonization 
and  occupation  should,  in  this  case,  be  taken  as  implying  ownership 
by  right — in  other  words,  unless  the  territory  was  given  up  in 
advance,  arbitration  was  not  acceptable.  And  so  the  matter  stands 
at  the  end  of  the  century. 

BRITISH    AND    AMERICAN    DIPLOMACY 

This  rapid  summary  of  the  diplomatic  relations  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  in  matters  affecting  Canada,  reveals 
much   of    vital    national    import    to   the    Dominion,    and    indicates 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  639 

more.  It  shows  clearly  the  prolonged  and  serious  remissness  of  the 
Mother-land  in  matters  affecting  territory  in  British  America  ;  it  indi- 
cates an  ignorance  of  the  value  of  that  territory  not,  perhaps, 
unnatural  in  view  of  the  vast  and  steadily  growing  responsibilities  of 
the  United  Kingdom  and  the  wild  vagaries  of  the  Little  England  or 
Manchester  School  of  thought,  but  still  reprehensible ;  it  shows  a 
desire  to  promote  peace  and  amity  between  the  Empire  and  the 
Republic  which  has  been  more  creditable  to  British  sentiments  of 
kinship  than  to  British  statecraft  or  knowledge  of  the  United  States. 
It  reveals  on  the  part  of  Canada,  in  its  callow  days,  a  desire  to 
endure  all  things  in  preference  to  questioning  seriously  the  good-will 
and  good  offices  of  the  Mother-land  ;  a  desire,  in  later  and  more 
mature  times,  to  strongly  enforce  its  own  views  upon  the  process  of 
treaty  negotiation  and  settlement  through  the  right  finally  given  by 
the  presence  of  Sir  John  Macdonald  at  Washington  in  1870,  of  Sir 
Charles  Tupper  at  the  same  place  in  1888  and  of  Sir  John  Thompson 
at  Paris  in  1893  ;  a  request  and  granted  permission  to  make  its  own 
commercial  treaties,  subject  to  British  approval,  and  illustrated  in  the 
visits  of  Canadian  leaders  to  Washington  in  1869,  in  1874,  in  1892  and 
in  1897. 

It  indicates  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain,  and  in  later  days,  a 
steady,  though  slow,  growth  in  her  appreciation  of  Canadian  loyalty 
and  the  value  of  Canadian  territory.  The  difference  between  the 
terms  and  character  and  results  of  British  negotiations  in  18 18,  in 
1842,  in  1846  and  in  1870  and  those  of  the  years  since  1888  are  most 
startling  in  the  measure  of  change  from  ignorance  and  indifference 
to  knowledge  and  devoted  support.  To  compare  the  willingness  of 
Earl  de  Grey,  at  Washington,  in  1870,  to  surrender  Canadian  terri- 
torial and  fishing  interests  en  masse,  withLord  Salisbury's  declaration 
in  1887  that  further  seizures  of  Canadian  vessels  on  the  Atlantic  coast 
would  practically  mean  war,  is  as  striking  in  its  way  as  to  glance  at 


640  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

the  difference  between  Sir  Richard  Cart wright,  in  1887,  advocating 
a  policy  of  trade  preferences  against  England  and  in  favour  of  the 
United  States  and,  in  1897,  supporting  one  of  preferences  in  favour  of 
England  and  against  the  United  States.  It  shows,  indirectly,  how 
strong  must  have  been  the  Canadian  sentiment  of  loyalty  to  the  flag 
and  allegiance  to  the  Crown  which  could  face  and  overcome,  or  grow 
out  of,  the  feelings  naturally  and  inevitably  aroused  by  these  earlier 
sacrifices  of  Colonial  interests.  It  also  affords  some  excuse  to  those 
who  have  since  supported  a  policy  inconsistent  with  the  maintenance 
of  British  connection. 

CANADIAN    LOYALTY    AND    DESTINY 

The  reasons  are  not  far  to  seek.  If  Great  Britain,  on  the  one 
hand,  did  not  value  to  the  full  extent  the  waste  lands  of  the  continent 
in  which  she  already  held  so  large  a  stake,  and  was  unable  to  see  the 
future  importance  of  certain  places  and  boundaries  which  slipped  out 
of  her  hands,  she,  on  the  other  hand,  maintained  her  right  to  very 
great  regions  of  territory.  If,  at  times,  statesmen  thought  or  spoke 
slightingly  of  certain  Canadian  interests,  or  territorial  rights,  they  did 
little  more  than  many  politicians  of  the  Dominrdn  itself  have  since 
done.  If  there  were  recollections  of  British  negligence  and  of 
occasional  losses  of  territory  through  diplomacy,  there  were,  also,  in  the 
heart  of  every  British  subject  in  Canada  memories  of  struggles  for 
life  and  home  and  country  in  which  he  had  fought  side  by  side  with 
British  troops  from  the  time  when  they  were  painfully  spared  by  an 
exhausted  Mother-land  in  181 2  and  18 14,  through  the  troubles  of 
1837,  the  frontier  raids  of  the  two  succeeding  years,  the  Trent  Affair, 
when  thousands  of  British  troops  had  been  poured  into  the  Provinces 
to  defend  them  against  a  possible  war,  the  period  of  the  Fenian  raids 
and  the  events  of  the  first  Riel  rebellion. 

There  were  other  reasons  for  the  maintenance  and  development 
of  loyal  sentiment.     The  influence  of  an  hereditary  tendency  toward 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  641 

monarchical  institutions  amongst  French-Canadians,  and  of  an  intense 
personal  sentiment  of  allegiance  amongst  the  United  Empire  Loyal- 
ists of  the  other  Provinces,  had  a  distinct  effect  upon  their  descend- 
ants. The  personal  factor  in  this  connection  received  a  great  and 
growing  impetus  in  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria  to  the  Throne, 
in  the  respect  felt  for  the  life  and  work  and  memory  of  the  Prince 
Consort,  and  in  the  visit  of  H.  R.  H.  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Canada 
in  i860.  The  latter  event  was  one  of  direct  interest  and  importance. 
The  young  Prince,  accompanied  by  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  Colonial 
•  Secretary,  and  a  large  suite,  visited  all  the  principal  places  in  Canada 
and,  at  Halifax,  St  John,  Quebec,  Montreal,  Toronto  and  other  points 
received  ovations  which  fully  illustrated  the  strength  of  existing  loy- 
alty to  British  institutions. 

Another  factor  of  great  weight  has  been  the  presence,  influence 
and  personality  of  the  Governors-General.  Lord  Durham  was  the 
recognized  founder  of  practical  constitutionalism  in  Canada.  Men 
like  Lord  Metcalfe  and  Lord  Dalhousie  impressed  even  hostile  critics 
and  antagonists  with  their  personal  honour  and  high  principles.  Lord 
Elgin  was  a  model  of  courtesy  in  manner  and  clever  conciliation  in 
rule.  Lord  Monck  was  a  strong  factor  in  promoting  Confederation 
and  went  further,  even,  than  the  constitution  under  ordinary  circum- 
stances would  have  warranted,  in  pressing  it  to  an  issue.  Sir  Howard 
Douglas  and  Sir  John  Harvey,  in  the  Maritime  Provinces,  were 
models  of  careful,,  honourable  administration.  Lord  Lisgar  and 
others  who  preceded  and  succeeded  him  gave  the  society  and  the 
people  of  a  new  country  most  useful  and  practical  examples  of  the 
best  phases  of  English  life  and  customs  and  manners.  Lord  Dufferin 
was  a  power  in  eloquence  and- popularity  which  went  very  far  towards 
consolidating  and  promoting  British  and  Canadian  sentiment  in  the 
geographically  separated  Provinces, 
34 


642  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

As  the  years  rolled  on  towards  the  end  of  the  century  other  and 
external  forces  came  to  the  front.  The  formation  of  the  Imperial 
Federation  League  in  London,  and  the  speeches  from  year  to  year  of 
men  like  Lord  Rosebery,  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster,  Mr.  Stanhope,  Lord 
Brassey,  Sir  John  Lubbock  (Lord  Avebury)  and  others  of  the  new 
school  of  Imperial  statecraft  rolled  away  many  a  cloud  of  doubt 
which  had  shadowed  the  minds  of  even  loyal  Canadians,  as  to  the 
British  attitude  toward  the  Colonies.  Gradually,  too,  that  wretched 
yoke  upon  the  neck  of  Empire  and  unity,  the  Little  Englander 
School  disappeared  from  the  area  of  influence,  though  not  altogether 
from  sight  and  sound.  Better  men  were  placed  in  charge  of  the  Colo- 
nial Office  and,  finally,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  whose  faults  may  well  be 
buried  in  view  of  his  honest  and  earnest  belief  in  the  Empire  as  a 
great  world-factor,  came  into  a  position  and  a  power  which  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  wield. 

Moreover,  there  had  never  been,  until  Confederation,  any  united 
public  opinion  in  the  Provinces  which  could  very  strongly  feel  or  resent 
the  passing  incidents  of  British  neglect  or  ignorance.  The  people  under- 
stood the  value  of  British  America,  as  a  whole,  very  little  more  than 
did  their  fellow-subjects  in  the  British  Isles,  and  no  lasting  impression 
was  made  upon  their  memories  by  the  historic  events  referred  to. 
The  United  States,  on  the  other  hand,  was  always  near  them  and 
always  a  rough  and  ready  wooer.  Annexation  was  the  dream  of  its 
greatest  leaders  but  certainty  as  to  the  result,  much  talk  of  destiny  in 
the  matter,  and  overwhelming  belief  in  the  superiority  of  American 
institutions,  led  them  into  the  error  of  using  coercion  instead  of  con- 
ciliation. Had  the  wooing  been  systematic  and  kindly  and  had  the 
Republic  assumed  and  maintained  the  role  of  a  magnanimous  and 
sympathetic  neighbour,  the  British  Canada  of  to-day  would  have  been 
almost  an  impossibility.  Not  absolutely  so,  of  course,  but  from  every 
standpoint  of  present  probability. 


EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION  643 

Outside  of  the  Reciprocity  period,  which,  however,  was  marked 
by  a  prolonged  series  of  nagging  efforts  at  abrogation,  the  history  of 
American  relations  with  the  British  Provinces  has  been  one  the  reverse 
of  brotherly.  Since  the  War  of  181 2  the  record  has  been  one  of  dis- 
putes over  territory,  differences  as  to  fisheries,  irritation  over  treaty 
negotiations,  complications  in  tariff  matters.  No  doubt  Canada,  in 
both  its  Provincial  and  Dominion  days,  has  been  wrong  at  times 
and  has  seemed  a  thorn  in  the  flesh  to  progressive  and  enterprising 
American  leaders  ;  but  its  difficult  position  as  a  young,  small,  separ- 
ated and  struggling  community  seems,  even  in  those  cases,  to  have 
deserved  some  consideration.  To  understand,  therefore,  the  loyalty 
of  Canadians  in  the  year  1900,  their  now  historic  participation  in  the 
South  African  war,  and  their  public  enrollment  under  the  flag  of  an 
Empire  which  can  be  militant  as  well  as  peaceful,  the  relations  of  the 
Provinces  to  the  United  States  as  well  as  to  the  United  Kingdom 
must  be  borne  in  mind. 

The  sentiment  which  has  finally  developed  and  with  which  the 
Dominion  of  Canada  enters  upon  a  new  century  of  hoped-for  achieve- 
ment and  progressive  prosperity  is  simple  and  yet  complicated.  It  is 
simple  in  being  strongly  Canadian  in  scope  and  character  and  local 
application.  It  is  complex  in  being  also  Imperialistic  to  a  degree 
which  is  steadily  growing  in  strength  and  volume  amongst  an  English- 
speaking  population.  It  is  still  more  complicated  by  the  existence  of 
a  passive  French-Canadian  people  who  are  opposed  to  change,  loyal 
to  existing  ties  but  absolutely  indifferent,  if  not  antagonistic,  to  any 
marked  development  towards  more  defined  and  closer  relations.  It  is 
peculiar  in  combining  American  democratic  tendencies  and  sympathies 
with  a  British  loyalty  to  the  Crown  which  grew  with  every  year  of 
the  life  and  reign  of  Queen  Victoria.  It  is  important,  in  the  fact  that 
Canadians  hold  the  pivotal  point  of  territory  and  power  in  the  British 
Empire,  and  that  upon  their  continued  loyalty  depends  not  only  the 


644  EXTERNAL  RELATIONS  OF  THE  DOMINION 

unity  of  the  Imperial  system  but  British  control  of  the  waterways  of 
the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific. 

The  400  years  of  Canadian  history  which  have  gone  into  the 
making  of  the  Dominion  are,  therefore,  of  a  nature  to  stamp  its  future 
with  every  fair  and  reasonable  prospect  of  success.  The  annals  of  its 
people  reveal  combined  characteristics  in  those  of  French  and  British 
origin  which  ought  to  ensure  future  power  as  they  have,  in  the  imme- 
diate past,  ensured  material  and  national  progress.  The  position  of 
the  country,  in  extent  and  resources  and  unity  and  transportation 
facilities,  should  make  the  wealth  and  commerce  of  an  important  des- 
tiny as  certain  as  the  aspirations  of  its  people  are  strong.  The  quali- 
ties of  past  and  historic  loyalty  to  Province  and  country  and  Empire, 
ought  to  make  its  place  in  the  Imperial  system  far  more  defined  in  the 
dim  march  of  distant  days  than  has  ever  yet  been  possible.  Canada 
for  Canadians,  within  the  Empire,  and  against  the  world,  appears  to 
be  the  exact  definition  of  popular  feeling  and  development  in  the 
Dominion  at  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

The  Queen's  Death  and  the  Royal    Tour 

BEFORE  the  formal  announcement  on  January  i8th  which  stated 
that  the  Queen  was  not  in  her  usual  health,  and  that  the  "great 
strain  upon  her  powers "  during  the  past  year  had  told  upon 
Her  Majesty's  nervous  system,  Canadians,  in  common  with  the  people 
in  other  parts  of  the  Empire,  had  become  so  accustomed  to  her  presence 
at  the  head  of  the  state  and  to  her  personality  in  their  hearts  and  lives, 
that  even  the  possibility  of  her  death  was  regarded  with  a  feeling 
of  shocked  surprise.  During  the  days  which  succeeded,  and  while  the 
shadow  of  death  lay  over  the  towers  of  Windsor,  its  influence  was 
equally  perceptible  throughout  the  press,  the  pulpit,  and  amongst  the 
people  of  the  Dominion.  When  the  Prince  of  Wales  on  Tuesday 
evening,  the  22dof  January,  telegraphed  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London 
that  "  my  beloved  mother,  the  Queen,  •  has  just  passed  away,"  the 
announcement  awakened  a  feeling  of  sorrow,  of  sympathy  and  of 
Imperial  sentiment  such  as  Canada  had  never  felt  before.  It  was 
more  than  loyal  regret  for  the  death  of  a  great  Sovereign  ;  it  was  a 
feeling  of  individual  loss. 

ACCESSION    OF    EDWARD    VII. 

The  Stability  of   British   institutions  was  never  more  strikingly 

exhibited  than   in  the  perfection  of  procedure  and  calm  certainty  of 

conditions  which  surrounded  the  accession  of  the  new  Sovereign.    In 

all  parts  of  the  Empire  the  necessary  constitutional  changes  occurred 

without  the  slightest   friction  or  controversy,   and  this   despite  the 

seemingly  permanent  place  which  the  late  Queen  had  come  to  assume 

in  the  machinery  of    British  government  everywhere.     There  was 

general  satisfaction   in  Canada  over  the  ^  choice  of  a  name,  and  the 

Prince  of  Wales  as  King  Edward  VII.,  soon  found  that  he  possessed 
64s 


646  THE  QUEEN'S  DEATH  AND  THE  ROYAL  TOUR 

the  loyalty  of  his  people  in  a  measure  which  would  have  astonished 
pessimists  of  a  few  decades  before,  and  which  did  surprise  many 
publicists  abroad. 

Meanwhile,  events  had  most  favourably  impressed  Canadians  as 
to  the  character  and  policy  of  King  Edward.  His  evident  and  deep 
feeling  for  his  mother,  the  eloquent  and  tactful  nature  of  his  address 
to  the  Privy  Council,  his  just  mingling  of  splendour  with  the 
draperies  of  sorrow  at  the  Queen's  funeral  ceremonies,  his  opening  of 
Parliament  in  solemn  state  and  his  sympathetic  treatment  of  the 
Queen  Consort,  all  combined  to  produce  a  most  favourable  public 
opinion. 

THE    ROYAL    TOUR 

On  September  17th,  1900,  it  was  announced  by  the  Colonial 
Office  that  Her  Majesty  the  Queen  had  assented  to  the  request  of  the 
Australian  Colonies  that  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke  of  York  should  open 
their  newly-established  Federal  Parliament  in  the  spring  of  1901. 
On  March  14th  the  Duke  of  York — now  also  Duke  of  Cornwall — 
sailed  from  Portsmouth  with  the  Duchess  of  Cornwall  and  York  on 
a  nine  months'  tour  of  the  Empire.  During  the  ensuing  six  months 
they  visited  Gibraltar,  Malta,  Port  Said,  Suez,  Aden,  Colombo, 
Singapore,  Melbourne,  Brisbane,  Sydney,  Auckland,  Wellington, 
Lyttleton,  Dunedin,  Hobart,  Adelaide,  Fremantle,  Mauritius,  Dur- 
ban, Simonstown,  Cape  Town,  Ascension,  St.  Vincent  and  other 
places  in  Asia,  Africa,  Australia  and  New  Zealand — a  distance  of 
40,000  miles  by  sea  and  land  under  the  British  flag  and  amongst 
communities  owning  the  sovereignty  or  suzerainty  of  the  British 
Crown. 

VISIT    TO    QUEBEC 

When  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Cornwall  and  York  landed  at 
Quebec  on  the  i6th  of  September,  1901  they  entered  upon  the  first 
State  visit  of   Royalty  to  the  Dominion  of  Canada. 


THE  QUEEN'S  DEATH  AND  THE  ROYAL    TOUR  647 

On  September  15th  the  ancient  City  of  Quebec  was  crowded 
with  visitors ;  the  streets  were  gaily  decorated  and  the  buildings 
everywhere  blazoned  with  the  French  greeting  "bienvenue;"  the 
splendid  citadel-rock  of  historic  fame  was  ablaze  with  bannerets  ;  on 
the  broad  bosom  of  the  St.  Lawrence  were  four  great  warships  await- 
ing the  Royal  visitors  ;  in  the  town  itself  were  the  Governor-General 
of  Canada,  his  Prime  Minister  and  all  the  members  of  the  Dominion 
Cabinet,  excepting  Sir  Richard  Cartwright,  waiting  to  receive  the 
guests  of  the  nation. 

Along  the  extensive  route  of  3,000  miles  from  Atlantic  to  Pacific, 
and  the  return  and  branch-line  trips,  some  brief  stops  were  made  at 
small  places  which  can  not  be  given  here.  But  everywhere,  whether 
the  Royal  train,  which  was  a  magnificent  special  suite  of  cars  pre- 
pared for  the  tour  by  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  stopped  or  not, 
and  whether  the  time  was  day  or  night,  crowds  stood  at  the  stations 
to  cheer,  and  if  possible  to  see,  their  future  King.  At  Quebec  the 
reception  was  particularly  effective,  and  the  electrical  display  from 
fortress,  city  and  harbour,  added  to  the  natural  grandeur  of  the 
scenery,  made  the  evening  spectacle  wonderfully  impressive.  A 
review  of  6,000  troops  took  place  on  the  historic  Plains  of  Abraham 
and,  later  on,  of  11,000  troops  at  Toronto  and  15,000  at  Halifax. 
The  Royal  Receptions  at  Quebec  and  at  Montreal  were  cancelled, 
greatly  to  the  personal  disappointment  of  the  people,  out  of  respect 
to  the  memory  of  President  McKinley,  whose  funeral  was  then 
taking  place. 

Montreal  gave  the  Royal  couple  a  crowded  and  imposing 
welcome.  The  Mayor,  clad  in  the  purple  robes  of  an  English  Mayor, 
read  an  Address  in  French,  which  the  Duke  replied  to  in  English. 
Their  Royal  Highnesses  were  then  driven  through  the  gaily  deco- 
rated streets  to  the  House  of  Lord  Strathcona,  who  had  come 
out   from    England  to  join    in    the   reception.       In    Winnipeg    the 


648  THE  QUEEN'S  DEATH  AND  THE  ROYAL  TOUR 

central  feature  of  the  welcome  was  the  presence  of  immense  arches 
of  wheat  upon  the  chief  streets  ;  at  Calgary  the  gathering  of  thousands 
of  Indians  in  solemn  greeting  with  an  exhibition  of  western  broncho- 
riding  and  sports  was  the  principal  feature  ;  at  Vancouver  there  was 
a  great  gathering  of  school  children  singing  patriotic  songs ;  at  Vic- 
toria the  fireworks  and  illumination  of  the  city  and  of  the  fleet  of 
men-of-war  in  the  harbour  were  conspicuous  features. 

Toronto  gave  the  Royal  visitors  the  chief  popular  reception  of 
the  tour.  Seven  miles  of  continuously  decorated  streets  lined  by 
ii,ooo  soldiers  and  a  multitude  of  people,  a  musical  welcome  by  a 
trained  chorus  of  2,000  voices,  a  crowded  reception  at  the  Parlia- 
mentary buildings,  State  dinners,  a  great  Military  review,  University 
honours  and  constant  cheering  in  the  crowded  streets,  were  indications 
of  the  interest  taken  in  the  Royal  couple.  At  Ottawa,  the  unique 
feature  of  the  welcome  was  the  visit  to  a  lumberman's  camp  and  a 
trip  down  the  river  on  a  lumberman's  raft.  From  Halifax,  the  Duke 
and  Duchess  sailed  on  October  21st,  accompanied  by  a  fleet  of  war- 
ships, and  with  the  remembrance  of  an  Empire  tour  unprecedented  in 
history  and  a  popular  reception,  cordial  and  loyal  beyond  the  most 
enthusiastic  expectation.  Before  leaving,  His  Royal  Highness  issued 
a  letter  of  thanks  and  appreciation  to  the  people  of  Canada  which, 
like  all  his  many  speeches  in  reply  to  addresses  of  welcome,  was  manly 
in  expression  and  effective  in  style  and  phrase.  Toward  its  close,  the 
Duke  expressed  the  deep  regret  of  the  Duchess  and  himself  at  not 
having  been  able  to  see  more  of  the  country  and  its  people.  "  But 
we  have  seen  enough  to  carry  away  imperishable  memories  of  affec- 
tionate and  loyal  hearts,  frank  and  independent  natures,  prosperous 
and  progressive  communities,  boundless  productive  territories,  glorious 
scenery,  stupendous  works  of  nature,  a  people. and  a  country  proud 
of  its  membership  in  the  Empire,  and  in  which  the  Empire  finds  one 
of  its  brightest  offspring." 


^/ 


